


reverse gravity

by clow



Category: EXO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - MAMA (Music Video), M/M, Songfic, Superheroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-14
Updated: 2017-04-14
Packaged: 2018-10-18 15:38:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,040
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10619943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clow/pseuds/clow
Summary: a hero and his nemesis are forced to quit their jobs due to a fallout in the superhero industry, and decide to move away together in order to pursue an ordinary life on the outskirts of Tokyo.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I would like to give my thanks to Line for betaing this long fic. This is a gift fic to her.  
> I also want to send kudos to Sun, Soles and Lo for supporting me. Without you all I wouldn't have made it.
> 
> This is a repost because I had deleted my first ao3 account. This fic has also been slightly reworked.

Kyungsoo would not wake up from just the choker on his throat. It was vibrating relentlessly, but he would not even shift in his sleep.

That was probably why he received the bucket of ice over his head, two slaps across his cheek, and a good traditional wake-up shake before he actually voyaged back through space, time and multiple dimensions to plain old reality, and opened his eyes.

Kyungsoo was confident it was only about three thirty-three in the morning. Something told him some hipster villain was trying to aim for an aesthetically symbolic time in the dead of night, just to irritate their archenemies. Irritate their archenemies it did: Kyungsoo was more than overtly upset and started channelling his anger towards his agent, the only person within his reach at the moment.

"I sometimes wish you were a mind-reader so you could see the scenery in my mind right now without my having to go through the pain of describing it," Kyungsoo grumbled drowsily as he tapped the edge of his slim choker, making a menu of commands display across the surface with smooth animation. The buttons were automatically embossed so that Kyungsoo could feel for the cancel option. With a light tap, the aggravating vibration finally stopped. He wearily rubbed his throbbing cheek and flicked some of the ice cubes off his pillow before pulling up his blanket. 

The covers were pulled away from him again and Kyungsoo groaned, covering his face with his hands, squeezing his eyes shut.

"Oh come on!"

 

It went without saying that Kyungsoo hated his job. So very much. 

He hated being on twenty-four-seven standby all day every day. It was killing him more than any team of villains could ever dream to. And to top it off, his agent had to be the timely, punctual and organized type. 

"I'm just doing my job," said agent replied as if he could actually read Kyungsoo's mind. "And to respond to that comment: ten to one the scenery in your mind involves my writhing in pain on a sacrificial altar. Sometimes I wonder if heroes hate their agents more than their enemies – oh. _Wait_ , I think it's scientifically proven that they actually do. I could have sworn I've read a convincing scholarly article about it somewhere. Now wake up Sleeping Beauty and get your pretty dress on, will you." 

Kyungsoo finally opened his eyes and glared at the man – who was still in pastel pink pyjamas, and had a cartoon bunny eye mask over his head and a deep frown across his forehead. 

Clearly Kyungsoo wasn't the only one with a foul mood. He cracked his neck left and right as he sat up, trying to shake away the drowsiness as well as attempt to intimidate the other, but his agent remained unfazed.

"You should sign up to be a mind reader, and get off my case," Kyungsoo grunted.

"It's Smoker this round," his agent said, reading from a file, completely dismissing the other's heart-to-heart advice.

Kyungsoo sighed and sank back into his blankets, waving his invisible white flag up in utter defeat. "How many times do I have to tell you, Baekhyun, I _can't_ be his opponent. What part of that sentence won't get through your head?"

"The 'can't' part," Baekhyun responded with a deadpan face.

Kyungsoo didn't even want to argue anymore, so he tossed a pillow.

 

Smoker was a pain in the ass. 

Kyungsoo knew that Baekhyun knew very well how his power could not possibly land a hit, no matter what. It didn't take a scientific expert to know that. So that made Baekhyun the bigger pain in the ass, and Kyungsoo sometimes had to wish he just didn't have an ass (which was now an appropriate euphemism for his superpower, at this point). Analogies aside, he just couldn't understand why the council and his agent and all the other superheroes think that Kyungsoo, a super physical strength chum, can take on a fella who can turn into smoke. Was Kyungsoo missing a whole chunk of common physics knowledge? Because he just couldn't comprehend how fists can hurt smoke? Someone, help?

"Why don't you go get Jongdae?" he asked.

"He's away."

"But he's the only one in our team who stands a chance against Smoker, and _you_ know that," Kyungsoo rubbed an eye with a fist but Baekhyun just ignored him so Kyungsoo asked, "Fucking shit. Define 'away'. I can't believe this guy. I can't believe you guys."

"To or at a distance from a particular place, person, or object. Physically and-or spiritually unavailable," Baekhyun recited from the top of his head, before flinging Kyungsoo the brief file. "Jongdae can't be reached at the moment. Besides, I don't endorse him now."

Kyungsoo cracked an eye open to stare at Baekhyun expressionlessly. "What? Did you guys break up?"

"Look, you really need to go out there and punch Smoker in the balls, not indulge in my insignificant penny dreadful stories," Baekhyun said with impatience.

"Define 'punch Smoker in the balls'," Kyungsoo said as he looked through the file with just as much passive aggressive impatience.

"I'm not fucking Siri."

"Can't I pass?"

"You can only pass a maximum of three times per year, and you've _long_ used them up. _And_ the next cycle starts in three hundred and sixty days, in case you were about to ask."

Kyungsoo closed his mouth when Baekhyun helpfully provided him with the answer to his unspoken question. 

Three hundred fucking sixty days. He fell back against his pillow with a dulled thud. He wondered why the council thought superheroes only needed three sick days in a whole year. He then bitterly wondered why he hadn't been born with a superpower that could actually cheat the system. Like mind-control or time manipulation. Fucking three hundred sixty days.

Kyungsoo then checked his alarm clock distractedly. And there it was, he was right: it was bloody three fucking thirty-three, the skies outside were darker than his entire wardrobe (he only wore black clothes), and he really couldn't care less for brainless citizens who'd be up at this ungodly hour. 

"Do Kyungsoo," Baekhyun prompted again, tacitly competing with Kyungsoo's level of irritation. 

Kyungsoo pretended he couldn't hear, but in the next second, his agent was pulling him out of his bed by his feet, and Kyungsoo was reluctantly dragged across the floor, his nails digging into the carpet, his face buried into its texture.

 

Moments later, at perhaps three fifty something in the morning, he was standing on the top of a building, face-to-face with an arsonist with a smoky disposition whom somehow only Kyungsoo could protect the city from. The skies were pitch black, the breeze was mild, fire surrounded them, and Kyungsoo had a wedgie. What a promising day.

"D.O. Flamingo," Smoker said in his deep husky voice as he ran a hand through his ashy silver hair. His figure was as handsome as ever, and his attire so casual and simple it hurt Kyungsoo's pride. 

Not that Kyungsoo was wearing some obnoxious spandex costume with mismatched hues – thankfully. But sometimes Smoker's apparel was so nice, Kyungsoo wished his designer had a better sense of fashion just so Kyungsoo could be able to compete in that area. It wouldn't hurt to look better. (Also, his superhero name was simply D.O.) (What Smoker had called him was simply a distasteful and disagreeable pet name.)

"D.O.," Kyungsoo corrected irascibly. He then exhaled deeply before tapping on his choker, making it summon a whole new menu of commands in front of him that were in the form of silvery loops the size of car wheels. He passed his hands through the loops and black iron gloves materialized around them with an eerie noise of crystallization. He then brought them back in front of him, dismissed the menu by waving it off, and cracked his knuckles.

"I'm not here to fight," Smoker declared nonchalantly, his hands up in surrender before he dissipated into smoke only to reappear right in front of Kyungsoo, leaving only an arm's length between them. "I'm just here for some talk."

"And this is all just some bonfire to accompany said talk?" Kyungsoo motioned vaguely at the whole situation: a building's roof was on fire in the middle of the night, and the alarm systems were honking loudly. "To build the atmosphere?"

Smoker shrugged, and pulled up a cigarette. "I had some business to tend to. Needed to summon you too. Killed two birds with a stone. You know how it is. Shouldn't you be used to this kind of stuff by now? Besides, it makes for a romantic backdrop, doesn't it?"

Kyungsoo knew he wouldn't land a hit, but his pent-up frustration was getting to him, so he flung a sucker punch over. Predictably Smoker dissipated and the smoke circled around before rematerializing behind the shorter man.

"I love how you love me," Smoker said, a sneer formed across his face and though Kyungsoo couldn’t see it, he passionately wished he could wipe it out. 

"What did you want to talk about," Kyungsoo swiped another punch only to get nothing but thin air laced with haze that swerved to his right, evading his fist.

"About my undying love for you," Smoker's voice came around from behind again.

Kyungsoo sighed and slumped his shoulders forward. "I'll have to pass." 

"No, well, that and the economy of this rundown city."

That didn't make Kyungsoo want to talk. At all. He wondered if he was not expressing himself clearly enough.

"You'll have to talk to my agent," Kyungsoo swung another punch just for the sake of punching empty air. It was proving to be great exercise. He'd have to recommend it to Baekhyun and the others one of these days. 

"Didn't you hear though? Chen's moved out," Smoker informed casually, dodging the hit with ease.

Kyungsoo stopped his next punch midway, and pulled back cautiously. "Wait. What? Chen … moved out?"

"Yeah. Chen did," Smoker repeated, "I don't blame him. His contract ended yesterday, didn't it? And the superhero market is shit here. So why wouldn't he?" 

Kyungsoo widened his eyes a little.

"Don't you read the newspaper?" Smoker took a drag from his cigarette casually. 

"Once in a blue moon," Kyungsoo lied. 

"Well, I dunno if you've seen the latest editorials and columns. People don't feel like bothering with us anymore, want to sell back stocks and shares since a battle between us two would be completely one-sided. We'll have no audience, and no one's gonna cover us. We barely make the headlines. In fact, we're pretty much in the margins of the crossword section of the newspaper now." 

Kyungsoo cocked his head. He actually didn't follow news, didn't listen to the radio, didn't even watch television.

"It's all just going downhill," Smoker said as he exhaled, the smoke and smell of cigarettes curling up into the air, and, as if Kyungsoo wouldn't understand, he motioned a downward motion with his lanky arm, just to emphasize his point. The smoke of his cigarette followed suit and left a trail of grey in the warm air. "Most investors have turned to entertainment companies. Fucking chicken-legged idols are outshining us."

Kyungsoo just eyed Smoker with a scrutinizing gaze before he looked away, massaging a temple to ease some of his nerves, "I need to talk to my agent."

"I thought he'd've told you about it."

"He didn't," Kyungsoo murmured.

Smoker was right to believe that, he thought. Baekhyun wasn't the type to keep that shit in. 

Kyungsoo tightened his fists. Something was amiss. Either Smoker was lying and deceiving him (god knows what his deviant ulterior motives were), or he was right and something was wrong with Baekhyun because he didn't tell Kyungsoo that Chen had moved out of this godforsaken town.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo had been friends since childhood. There was little to no reason for the agent to not tell Kyungsoo something _this_ crucial. Chen, also known by his real name Jongdae, was Baekhyun's boyfriend too. His agent had always told Kyungsoo all the saucy details about their relationship, never sparing him from all the tee-em-eye tidbits, always continuously talking about Dae this and Dae that, and Dae everything perfect.

It was hard for Kyungsoo to believe that Baekhyun would choose reticence over letting it all out. It was completely uncharacteristic.

Kyungsoo had asked the breakup thing as a joke, half an hour ago. He didn't actually think they _had_ indeed broken up. They were such a perfect couple: it was inconceivable for them to be separate. It was like divorcing lightning from thunder. A violation of nature.

But then it would truly be The Sign of the end of the world, wouldn't it? Amidst the crappy economy and the stupid Superheroes Movement council that was probably keeping one too many things secret from their superheroes.

"Which leaves us with the talk of my unconditional love for you," Smoker then continued.

Kyungsoo turned his back to the villain, still in deep contemplation, and practically shrugged off the other's schoolgirl crush declaration.

If what Smoker said was true and the market was truly dying around here, and that the city didn't need the whole superhero versus supervillain soap-opera shenanigans, and that he and Smoker were the only ones left, and that Baekhyun was lying to him or keeping something from him, then Kyungsoo was thoroughly screwed.

He wouldn't be able to make a living out of lost fights, wouldn't be able to pay the rent for this tiny studio he lived in. His agent and he were going to starve to death. He'd probably also have to fight Baekhyun and beat him to a pulp for keeping this all as a secret from him.

"Do you have Chen's phone number?" Kyungsoo asked absentmindedly. He couldn't exactly confront Baekhyun right off the bat since it did seem like a sensitive subject for a four a.m. heart-to-heart talk. Would have been too brash and inconsiderate (and he was anything but brash and inconsiderate), so maybe contacting Jongdae and confirming the situation with him on that end would be the better idea.

Smoker let out a puff of heavy smoke. "Last time I checked, I wasn't on friendly terms with him, so no. Why?"

"Don't you keep his public helpline number or something?"

"Do I look like I would need his help?" Smoker scoffed mildly before his expression then turned contemplative. After a second's pause, he asked, "I think you could help me though. Could I have your phone number please?"

"Fuck off." Kyungsoo let the iron gloves around his fists disintegrate before he loosened his fingers and stretched his arms. "I'm leaving." 

Smoker then materialized in front of him before he could take a step away.

"We didn't get to talk about my love for you," he pouted.

Kyungsoo wheezed. "It's four a.m., the market is in dire condition, my childhood friend might have lied to me, could you please spare me?" 

But before Kyungsoo could take another step, Smoker grabbed his wrist and stopped him. The touch was unfamiliar – they rarely ever made contact, so it definitely made Kyungsoo flinch. Strangely though, it also felt warm and soothing. He eyed Smoker curiously and suddenly noticed that the guy looked more solemn than usual.

"It might be for the last time," he said, his eyes filled with something Kyungsoo couldn't really put his finger on.

Kyungsoo shook the hand off his wrist.

"What do you mean?" he asked. The fire around them suddenly zipped into oblivion as Smoker took a step forward, leaning into Kyungsoo's personal space.

"Well. Given the economy… I'm moving out too. I can't stick around," he murmured and leaned back straight. He looked around at the black sky as if ruminating over the meaning of life or something deep. He then inhaled from his cig one last time before throwing the stub to the ground and stepping on it with his shoe.

"And how is _that_ , in any way, related to your everlasting love for me?" Kyungsoo kept his gaze to the ground, somehow unable to bring himself to look the other in the eye.

There was a pause in the conversation before Smoker cleared his throat and spoke up.

"I was wondering if you wanted to move away too."

Kyungsoo couldn't help holding his breath. Suddenly he was hearing his heartbeat in his ears.

"With me," Smoker finished, almost in a whisper, soft and low.

 

 

Kyungsoo scrambled through his drawers, trying to look for Chen's old campaign ad, and found the copy in the recycling bin he hadn't thrown out since forever. But before he could make a call, the crumbly paper was snatched away by none other than his agent who Kyungsoo hadn't noticed had been stood in his flat for the past few minutes.

"He's sleeping now," Baekhyun said softly. "He's had a long day."

Kyungsoo decided to stay quiet.

"I would've told you about it if it wasn't so early in the morning and if you didn't have some asshole out there raising fires," Baekhyun tried explaining, but Kyungsoo just turned away.

"It's pretty big news, whether there's a rampant pyromaniac out there or not," Kyungsoo commented pointedly.

"Well, you've gotta realise it's not a topic I could just broach into right in the middle of a nocturnal assignment," Baekhyun replied meekly.

"You’re being unusually quiet about this whole thing, and it just made me worry and let's just keep it at that. I don't need to know your excuses," Kyungsoo motioned a full stop with both of his hands to emphasize that there was no need for Baekhyun to explain himself. His agent just puckered his lips, eyes going watery.

"Oh, so you _do_ care about me," he said.

"Quit pretending you don't know I do. In some corner of some forgotten compartment of my heart, I can guarantee you that I do care, and that's all I've got to say about that," the superhero said with irony rolling off the sentence. "Now you owe me some explanation. What happened? Why… did you guys break up?"

Baekhyun looked at Kyungsoo, eyeing him curiously. "Break up?"

Kyungsoo nodded.

"He just moved out of town, Soo, we didn't break up," Baekhyun raised an eyebrow. "Cause Internet exists? We're still in contact. Totally wired. We can still sext and all that jazz, no problem."

"Tee-em-fucking-eye," Kyungsoo groaned.

"In fact, I sent him a picture of my dick just now."

"Alright, alright. I get it. _You get off by exchanging dick pics. You guys didn't break up_. That's great."

"If we broke up, I would have jumped out your window and become a pile of broken bones and shattered heart pieces by now."

Kyungsoo sighed in relief before replying, "Don't get dramatic."

"I swear I would have done it. There's no one else for me other than Jongdae."

"You're weightless," Kyungsoo pointed out. "It's not like it would've worked."

Baekhyun pouted. "I keep forgetting that gravity has no effect on me, but ugh my point still stands, I'd take a bullet if I had to. You get me?"

(Baekhyun was basically a 'light' boy, in the sense that he had no weight at all. However, since he didn't have any other special power, he would often forget about it. That was also the reason why he didn't make it out as a field agent, or a superhero, like Kyungsoo.)

They both sat down on the carpet, letting the topic sink in. 

"Wouldn't you have wanted to move out with him?" Kyungsoo asked as casually as he could, but his fingers couldn't help fidgeting a bit. Baekhyun looked at him curiously before gazing down at the carpet.

"I couldn't just _leave_ you," Baekhyun said. 

Kyungsoo swallowed dryly. After a second, he got up to his feet. "Want something to drink?"

"It's just five in the morning."

Kyungsoo shrugged. "It's not too late."

Baekhyun smiled curtly. "A beer then."

Kyungsoo shuffled to his mini fridge and grabbed two cans, tossed one at Baekhyun.

The drinks sizzled. They both took a sip from their respective cans. Kyungsoo remained standing, leaning back against a chest of drawers, and the light boy was on the carpet, his arms over his knees.

"Where's he at now?" Kyungsoo then asked, taking a small sip from his can this time, letting the cold and bitter taste stream down his throat slowly.

"Tokyo, Japan," Baekhyun answered. 

"Still a superhero?"

"Nah. He's working in the shadows, the Japanese prefer vigilantes nowadays. Being paid lowest wage though, so he took up a job as an electrician too."

"Lowest wage?"

"Yeah."

"That bad?" Kyungsoo put his can of beer away, already feeling a bit nauseous, but he wasn't sure if it was from the idea of superheroes going out of vogue and being treated as nothing, or from his cheap alcoholic drink. He scratched the back of his neck nervously before his fingers slipped down to touch the cold metallic surface of his choker.

"He said he might just quit the industry," Baekhyun sighed, "We've really dropped to the bottom of the ladder."

Kyungsoo found himself doing the motion Smoker did with his arm to emphasize the fall. He paused and just blanched. Baekhyun looked at him oddly.

"Smoker told you about Jongdae, didn't he?" Baekhyun then questioned. Kyungsoo snapped his gaze at his agent.

"Yes," he replied stiffly.

"I wonder how he got the info," Baekhyun stood up on his feet. "Jongdae's only left under a few hours ago." He shuffled to Kyungsoo's laptop and flipped the lid open, and holographic windows popped above the device. "He must have hacked into the council's system or something."

Kyungsoo walked over. "This guy's got too many hobbies. Chain-smoking, arson, and even hacking?"

"He also plays the guitar, apparently," Baekhyun said as he started typing a sequence of commands that Kyungsoo didn't bother reading. "And keeps up with new animes, plays videogames, writes Shakespearean sonnets dedicated to you."

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. "Very funny."

"I try," Baekhyun replied with a brief smile. "Oh and he also watches porn with guys who look eerily like you –"

"Not so funny."

"I've been tracking his browser history just in case he tries something funny. It's all for your security, I ensure you."

"…"

Kyungsoo ran a hand in his black hair, trying to resist the urge to punch Baekhyun's brains out of his skull.

"Why didn't you tell me that the market's going obsolete?" Kyungsoo asked unceremoniously as Baekhyun scanned through tabs and tabs of data and alpha-numerical lines that were indecipherable to Kyungsoo.

"We all try to believe it isn't. Besides, I didn't think you didn't know," Baekhyun responded. His slender fingers tapped a few hologram windows off before he closed the laptop. "Just a year ago it didn't even seem the least plausible. But the trend died suddenly and we're left to shit."

"I think you should move in with Jongdae," Kyungsoo proposed, the suggestion being even more out of the blue than the precedent question that Baekhyun's eyes widened and he had to look at his friend carefully, trying to search for the meaning behind it.

"I can't believe you'd support my elopement," Baekhyun said, "But well, it's more complicated than that. Cutting the contract short with the council won't be easy, not when they have so much information about us," Baekhyun said. "A-and besides, I don't want to just…" Baekhyun gulped audibly, averting his gaze. "I don't want to just leave you here, you know? I know you hate me, and sometimes I do too whenever you make my life difficult but - "

"It's fine," Kyungsoo found himself saying. "I think I have a place to go, and it wouldn't be so far from you, if you're going to be in Tokyo with Jongdae."

Baekhyun really looked like he had just encountered a ghost – his nonplussed expression wasn't any less than that, but at least it wasn't upsetting news so he quickly regained his questioning gaze.

"There's actually something about _you_ I'm not in the know of?" Baekhyun stated carefully, his eyebrow raising and disappearing under his bangs. "That _can't_ be right."

"Er," Kyungsoo said.

"Go on," Baekhyun urged, as if he had just discovered that he had been lied to his whole life. "I hack into anything on an hourly basis and I know literally everything about you."

"Stalker."

"Only for your safety," Baekhyun asserted before he frowned. "Now quit dawdling and shoot it. What's this 'you got a place' about?"

"Well."

"Yes?"

"Um."

"I'm all ears."

"Er."

"Kyungsoo, I know you're far from eloquent but this is stretching it," Baekhyun said with an ironically tiny ounce of impatience.

"Smokeraskedmetomoveinwithhim."

"Okay, fuck you, that was anything but intelligible," Baekhyun threw a punch at the other's shoulder, and it barely hurt Kyungsoo, but the superhero shrunk back, rubbing his arms nervously.

"Smoker asked if I would like to, er," Kyungsoo tried breathing and he wondered why in the world he wasn't able to say it. What was he so nervous about?

"To go out with him?" Baekhyun asked, "Cause that's… absolutely nothing new—"

"Move in with him." 

Baekhyun stood still without even batting an eyelash. 

He then asked, "And you said…?"

"No! Of course," Kyungsoo murmured quickly. Baekhyun eyed him closely. The silence that ensued echoed in the room in a way that stressed Kyungsoo a lot. He bit his lip, and tried hiding the fidgeting of his hands by pushing them into his pockets.

"You're lying."

Kyungsoo turned his gaze away, and found himself reading the time on his alarm clock that sat innocently across the room, on his night-table. It was interesting how he never noticed that the numbers were displayed in green. Hadn't they been red before?

"Do Kyungsoo, look at me."

Kyungsoo turned back very agonizingly slowly.

"Fuck," Baekhyun hissed as he took one good look into Kyungsoo's eyes and seemed to understand everything from just that. "You told him 'you'd think about it', didn't you?"

Baekhyun should really invest in becoming a mind-reader, Kyungsoo thought, and as if on cue, Baekhyun scoffed with a proud smirk, as if he had unveiled the fog that had been covering the morning sea waiting for the dawn.

 

 

"It'll just be across the sea," Smoker had said. "Yokohama. It's a quiet place, not too far from Tokyo. I've got a flat already, since my friend owns an apartment building over there. I think… I think you might like it?"

Kyungsoo didn't know what to say. Though, what he really wanted to say was actually _hell no_ or some form of sarcastic _in your dreams_ but those answers just wouldn't come out for some reason.

"I know you probably don't like me, but I thought I'd give it a try," Smoker explained, his shoulders slouching forward in mild disappointment, perhaps because Kyungsoo wasn't saying anything. "You know. Wouldn't hurt to give it a try and all—"

Kyungsoo threw a fist over just because he could, but Chanyeol just disintegrated and reappeared again as expected, but this time closer to Kyungsoo.

"You sure like hitting me," he said, a grin spreading from ear to ear. 

Kyungsoo regained composure, eyed Smoker intensely.

"And what will you do in Yokohama?" Kyungsoo then asked, a stern look on his face.

"I found a small job in a radio station," Smoker responded. "Gonna start off as an intern of course, since I have no experience in the work field."

Kyungsoo narrowed his eyes. An intern at a radio station?

"I've been studying Japanese as of late too, whenever I'm not breaking into banks and burning files and all that crap," Smoker further explained. "You don't know how much I'm fed up with being a bad guy. It's been a real drag you know. Can't sleep most nights, and if I do, then all I _dream_ of is just living an ordinary human's life. All the quieter type of stuff, no parties no confetti no paparazzi no bad boy reputation to keep up."

Kyungsoo didn't know what to say to a villain describing something akin to an existential crisis without so much of the crisis part, since Smoker didn't look so distraught.

"I'm sure you'd want that too. Don't you get sick of being woken up at three-thirty-three because some idiot decided it was time some buildings gotta burn?"

Kyungsoo just had to throw another punch. Smoker cackled.

 

 

"… and then he gave you his phone number so you could reach him if you decided that you'd like to give it a try. And I bet you haven't burnt the phone number yet cause you're considering it rather seriously," Baekhyun completed the flashback with a smug smile, and Kyungsoo wanted to fade away into his wallpaper. There was no way Baekhyun was not a psychic. It was barely six a.m. and Kyungsoo had already witnessed three or even four separate instances where his childhood friend read his mind like he was an open book. 

And Kyungsoo had thought he had a closed-book poker face. He used to pride himself in always having one sardonic expression that intimidated most of his opponents. Except Smoker, of course, who took everything Kyungsoo did as forms of reciprocation of eternal love.

"Yokohama, huh?" Baekhyun said. "I think it's around forty-five minutes by train."

"Yeah, Smoker told me."

"That's not too bad."

"… I suppose."

"But … would you really be fine living with … I mean, what if he made inappropriate advances?" Baekhyun said worriedly. 

Kyungsoo bit his lips nervously. "I'm a tough guy. It'll be fine."

"You can't even strangle him."

Kyungsoo's eyes turned dark. "Oh, so _now_ you acknowledge the fact that I can't get physical with him?" He then blushed because wow, there were so many other ways to word that better.

Baekhyun was laughing. "That's one way of putting it?"

"Finally hearing the 'can't' part of the fucking sentence then?" Kyungsoo's hands were raised towards Baekhyun's neck in a threatening position. His agent squeaked and stepped back.

"No violence between a superhero and his agent, our contract says," Baekhyun started before realisation dawned onto him. "Well, fuck, we still have the slave contracts pinning us down to our city for at least several more years." 

Kyungsoo lowered his hands and sighed heavily, and Baekhyun relaxed his shoulders.

"He told me he burned them."

Baekhyun looked at Kyungsoo; possibly looking to read the scene off his face, but the wannabe mind-reader seemed to have hit a wall.

"… Burned what exactly?"

"The secret data centre the council uses to store information on us. Said the contracts were turned to dust."

"…" Baekhyun's eyes vacillated back and forth as he thought. "The data centre was in the building he burnt two hours ago?"

"According to him, anyways."

Baekhyun tapped a finger against his lips, then started mumbling, almost to himself. "I need to research this up. Fucking crazy. Can't be _this_ easy, I mean. It's just – the council'd surely have backups?"

Kyungsoo nodded. "He's told me he got rid of the backups too. He wanted to clear his name, or something. Made sure about it. Anyways, please do check it up, before I sell my soul to him."

His agent stood up. "I'll have to head back to my place. Will need more than one or two screens. Did you fill in the assignment's file, by the by?"

"The assignment I just came back from?"

"Yes."

"Then no, I haven't yet."

"That's fine. No need to fill it, I'll take it. Did you wear a wire on you today?"

"Only an audio one."

"Did you have sex with Smoker?"

"What the flying fuck, Baekhyun."

"Just making sure because I'll _have_ to listen in, and I don't want to be traumatized."

"Oh, and it's okay for me to know how you sext Kim Jongdae?" Kyungsoo deadpanned.

"You're a tough fella, you can take it."

"Baekhyun."

But the agent just grabbed his summer jacket, and then walked to Kyungsoo's front door. "By the way, had you thought about what you would do in Yokohama?" he asked before he grabbed for the knob.

"He told me…" Kyungsoo trailed. "Smoker said I could try picking up a hobby or something to do. Start anew. He said he'd support me."

"And you trust him?" Baekhyun asked.

Kyungsoo heaved a sigh. "I don't."

"So what will you do?"

"I thought maybe you could find me something to do. Maybe I could join that vigilante group Jongdae's in? Worst case scenario, anyways."

"You mean, you don't want to continue your current career if you had another route," Baekhyun said.

"I hate this profession," Kyungsoo stated almost a bit vehemently, and dropped his gaze to the floor. "I guess that's partially why I'm interested in his offer."

"Only partially?" Baekhyun repeated with light humour, and it made Kyungsoo relax his shoulders. "What're your major reasons then?"

"I retract what I said. I mean to say it's the _whole_ reason why I'm interested in his offer."

"I can hear the discrepancy between what you are telling me now, and what you're actually thinking."

Kyungsoo leaned forward. "Okay, Baek, you gotta be honest with me."

"Always."

"Are you a mind reader or not?"

"Think of a colour in your mind, and I'll show you," Baekhyun proposed. Kyungsoo nodded, and thought of the colour silver, thinking that Baekhyun would probably say black, which was Kyungsoo's all-time favourite colour.

"Silver," Baekhyun muttered. "My second guess would be black."

Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow. "How did you –"

"I can't read your mind, Soo. I just make a guess based on what I know about you. And I manage your life, so I basically know everything. So was it silver?"

"Yeah…?"

"You were thinking of Smoker's silver hair, weren't you?"

"You're scaring the shit out of me, right now."

Baekhyun laughed, throwing his head back. "Well, anyways, I'll get to you about the data centres as soon as I can."

"Yes, please do," Kyungsoo said, waving Baekhyun off.

 

After Baekhyun's thorough investigation over the matter – an investigation that took three entire days, no less – he concluded that Smoker was right. 

The chain-smoker had somehow managed to find the concealed data centre – a very tiny one because there were only a handful of superheros and villains – that was hid with almost no guards, behind the wall of an office rented out to third-rate lawyers of a small firm who knew nothing and had nothing to do with it. Destroying the planks of metal – just a slight burn was all it took, and Smoker had been more than generous in terms of fire – was as easy as pie, and it meant that all records and contracts were heavily damaged and were thus irretrievable. The backups – a total of just two – had long been destroyed with impressive stealth, as the actual machinery looked perfectly intact while its content were charred.

Baekhyun had also dug up a dossier containing details of a unanimous decision against the need of back up cloud storages. The council had been afraid the information could be too easily accessible to any unsuspecting outsiders if they had employed cloud storages. Clearly, they hadn't thought Smoker could actually make it through to the actual infrastructure – and if Baekhyun wasn't wrong with his research, the villain hadn't been on the case for too long either. It was only a simple matter of determination.

All that just to say that Baekhyun and Kyungsoo were free to run off wherever it pleased them, with no baggage to carry, no strings to cut. It was almost too exhilarating, that when Baekhyun had told Kyungsoo all about it, they had to take several deep breaths in order to ease off the adrenaline that built up in their chests. 

Kyungsoo had finally been able to take off his metal choker too, and it was liberating, to say the least.

"Kudos to Smoker," Baekhyun said, holding up his can of beer. Kyungsoo did the same, and they clinked their drinks before taking a gulp.

So that was that. Baekhyun packed his things in a suitcase, booked tickets for both of them, faster than lightning, and the next thing Kyungsoo knew, Baekhyun was talking ecstatically to Jongdae on the phone, and it pleased the superboy to see his friend being so happy again, though he still had lines of weariness across his pallid face. 

But those were going to fade away soon, right? Kyungsoo stared at himself in the mirror, and noticed how pale he was too. All those years of waking up to horrible accidents and terrible calamities he had to save strangers from, showed on his figure. 

Being a superhero was definitely tiring, and he was fed up with it all, just as Smoker was. At one point everything felt so staged and repetitive, mechanical and boring, that Kyungsoo realised how they – the heroes and antiheroes – had all just been puppets being played with by the anonymous and faceless council that no one had ever met. Back then however, he just didn't know what else he could actually do if he quit, so he just went along.

But now, all that was part of the past. 

Kyungsoo could start anew. He could finally press the restart button. Learn something that he could actually put to use, that he would have complete control over. Do something he'd enjoy for once. 

 

Like singing.

 

The call to Smoker was a brief one. Kyungsoo just let him know that he’d got tickets to Japan, and that was all that needed to be said. Smoker had choked on air, too shocked and overjoyed over how Do Kyungsoo, his archenemy, had just accepted his offer of moving in together. 

Not that they were moving in as lovers – god forbid, Kyungsoo thought. But it was nice to have a flatmate that he knew, in a whole new city that he didn't know so well, and maybe Smoker had felt the same.

Though, technically speaking, Kyungsoo didn't know much about Smoker at all. Exchanging fists wasn't such a great way to start any kind of long-term friendship, that much Kyungsoo knew, but at least, he thought, he would have liked knowing the guy's real name. He'd like to see the human side of Smoker as well – the part of the guy that didn't show when he was a villain who was as elusive as … well, smoke.

They met at the airport. Kyungsoo and Baekhyun had gone together, and while Baekhyun helped looking for Smoker, Kyungsoo was carrying the suitcases because it was only natural. 

They had almost missed each other. Kyungsoo had walked past Smoker in a hurry to catch up with Baekhyun. 

"D.O.!" 

A hand grabbed Kyungsoo by the shoulder and he turned around, before familiarly lifting his gaze up to the man that had called him. He had a sports bag flung over his back, a large suitcase in one hand that had a Rilakkuma plushie tied to it, baggy clothes, trendy sunglasses.

"Hi," Kyungsoo said, timidly. "You're…?"

The man smiled, and it was somehow a grin that screamed familiarity to Kyungsoo. "I don't think we've properly introduced ourselves. Hi, I'm Park Chanyeol."

Kyungsoo felt himself flush up. The husky voice sent chills down his arms, and he let go of his luggage.

"I'm Do Kyungsoo," he replied cautiously. "It's nice to… finally meet you."

Smoker— _Chanyeol_ grinned. 

"Yeah. It's sure nice."

Kyungsoo didn't know what to say anymore, so he just proffered a hand, motioning to take Chanyeol's things for the meantime, before they checked in because it was only natural.

 

For the whole time up to boarding, they didn't really talk. It was only by the time they were up in the air that Chanyeol broke the spell.

"I honestly wished I could fly there the way I usually do, giving all control to some pilot I barely know makes me nervous," Chanyeol said. Kyungsoo looked up at him, an eyebrow raised. 

"Through smoke. You know. I usually travel by wind," the taller man replied hush-hush, squirming in his seat as he unbuckled his belt since the signs went off, and the captain had just finished his welcome aboard message.

"Then why… didn't you?" Kyungsoo wondered aloud.

"Well, you were coming along, and I'd rather… tag along with you," Chanyeol shrugged. "We could get to know each other better, all that. I'm sure we kept up personas when we were… who we were. So now that we don't have to be someone else, it'd be interesting to have a talk. Friendly chitchat. All that."

"I suppose," Kyungsoo agreed after a pause.

"So, did you study a bit of Japanese? I sent you the pirated version of the best language textbooks I could find. Did Baekhyun forward them to you?"

"Yeah, he did, but I didn't really study yet… Housekeeping was tiring enough."

"You'll learn fast when you get the environment. It's not all that different from Korean, too."

"I see," Kyungsoo replied.

There was another long gap in their conversation, only filled in with the occasional snore that came from Baekhyun, who was sleeping against the tiny window.

"Did you … think about what you wanted to do when we get there?" Chanyeol asked, trying to revive the conversation, but he was clearly getting nervous. 

Kyungsoo bit his lower lip, as he stared up at Chanyeol. His silvery hair had turned slightly black, but his whole face was pretty sunny, bright, and friendly. Nothing like what people would usually imagine a villain as. 

"Not really," Kyungsoo said. It wasn't exactly the truth – he had thought about it a lot, but had not come to any solid conclusion. He clenched his fists and then unclenched them again. He was getting a bit edgy about where the topic was going.

"It's fine. Things like that take time," Chanyeol murmured. "That's what all the ordinary humans say, anyways."

And there it was again – stiff air and silence accompanied by Baekhyun's sleeping noises that sounded like a puppy whimpering.

"Tell me about things you like to do," Chanyeol asked, but before Kyungsoo could think about anything, he said, "I can tell you mine first, I think it'd be fair that way."

Kyungsoo just nodded without much thought.

"I like to read and write. I play the guitar and videogames, and I guess I watch animated shows from Japan – those are called animes. I'm pretty trash for some 2D characters, but er, more importantly, I love music and some of the artists for anime theme songs are just brilliant."

Kyungsoo nodded again, trying to show the most genuine 'wow, that's interesting' expression when in fact he had a sense of déjà vu, from when Baekhyun had first listed Chanyeol's weeaboo hobbies.

"And you follow porn stars who look eerily like me," he caught himself saying before he just widened his eyes in such a way he looked like a night owl who had choked on a mouse. He covered his mouth, and Chanyeol had looked at him with eyes that were just as big.

But two seconds later, the taller man was reduced to barks and laughter that only stopped because the air attendant had told him politely that he "was disturbing everyone's beauty sleep at the moment so if could he be civil and shut up, it'd be very much appreciated".

"Oh god," Chanyeol said, still barely able to contain his laughter – so much that it turned his cheeks red, and he had tears in the corner of his eyes.

"Courtesy of Byun Baekhyun," Kyungsoo then added.

Chanyeol side-eyed the sleeping man. "I was sure I had protected my browsing and download privacy."

"He's pretty good at the game," Kyungsoo said proudly before he realised that well, they were talking about pornography in an enclosed public area, and he had sounded so blasé to Chanyeol about him being the centre visual of it too. Maybe he wasn't so proud. He slouched his shoulders.

Chanyeol glanced back at Kyungsoo. "Okay, so enough about me. What about… you?"

Kyungsoo sighed. There were only a few things he thought about – he didn't have many hobbies because his previous profession didn't give him that many day offs – three per year, to be precise. He always slept and ate every time he wasn't fighting swarms of villains and minions. 

He'd read some young adult novels occasionally, but he never kept up through any of them – he'd even forgotten the titles, authors, or where he had last placed them.

On the other hand, he did remember being dragged to a karaoke bar once, a long time ago, by Jongdae and Baekhyun, and he had sung. Both of them had been in awe, and told him his voice was amazing and that he should invest in it, if he hadn't been so busy with 'work'. 

"I like to sing," he said, so low that Chanyeol couldn't hear and had to lean in and asked for him to repeat.

There was a smell of smoke emanating from his clothes that Kyungsoo hadn't been aware of up until that moment, and he sort of broke into cold sweat because it smelled way too familiar.

It smelled like Smoker, and it made numerous flashbacks, numerous occasions, flicker across his mind, which quickly became overwhelming to the point that Kyungsoo had to shrink back.

"I like to sleep, that's all," Kyungsoo finally said, and Chanyeol just nudged him impishly.

 

 

When they had arrived, said their 'hi's to Jongdae who looked good and much healthier than he had been before, and said their 'bye's to Baekhyun, Chanyeol took Kyungsoo by the hand and dragged them towards the train that would bring them to a subway station where they would transfer train lines towards Yokohama.

It had been a long day – flights across the sky always made them stretch longer, didn't they? So Kyungsoo let himself be carried away by the other man, relaxing because well, Chanyeol seemed like a decent guy, despite the whole shady past.

They had been able to talk more on the plane – conversations that were so casual despite the fact that they barely knew about each other's personal lives, but it was maybe because of this reason that they could talk at all.

"So there's this anime movie I've just watched. It's an old thing, but … " Chanyeol babbled on and on.

It was a strange feeling to know someone yet not know them at all at the same time. It was a stranger feeling that Kyungsoo, now just Do Kyungsoo, and not D.O., or D.O. Flamingo, for that matter, had to start digging into his own life, trying to figure out what he actually liked, and what he didn't like, as if he had just woken up from a long sleep, and had forgotten what he was like, prior to it.

It was just as difficult as figuring out who he was in a previous life.

Chanyeol, on the other hand, seemed to know himself quite thoroughly, though he would leave hints here and there that suggested that he too was in the same search – of who he was already and who he wanted to be. 

So instead of feeling like he was too far behind, Kyungsoo had someone he could talk to about his situation thereafter. Someone who could help him around while he focused on adapting to Japanese culture, and contemplate over what he wanted from his new life. 

"This is our flat," Chanyeol announced with his arms spread wide open as if to express some kind of theatrical enthusiasm. 

It was a modern-looking Western flat with two rooms, a kitchenette and a washroom. One of the rooms had a couch that seemed to signal that it was a living room instead of a bedroom, while the other had a queen-sized bed with two night tables on each side. Chanyeol walked into it and opened the curtains to reveal a floor-to-ceiling window that looked down to the quieter side of the old Yokohama. The neon lighted edifices that they had passed by on their way seemed to be on the other side of their building, and they reflected lightly against the night sky.

"You can take the bed," Chanyeol said, probably because Kyungsoo wasn't saying anything. "And a shower, I'll set up the sheets and everything so we could just go ahead and sleep."

Kyungsoo nodded.

"Did you want something to eat though?"

The shorter man shook his head. He had long lost his appetite because of the flight, albeit the fact that it hadn't been a long one.

"I can cook pretty well, you know," Chanyeol said as if he needed to explain himself for offering food. Kyungsoo shrugged. He was really tired.

"I can take the couch, it's fine. You're too long for it," he pointed out wearily.

Chanyeol smiled briefly, then he unzipped his sports bag and threw Kyungsoo a big fluffy towel that had an insignia – a silver S stitched into a corner. "Go shower."

 

When Kyungsoo came out of the washroom though, he found Chanyeol sleeping soundly on the couch, the bed made up, and a bubbling pot of ramen on the small round table next to the kitchenette.

There was the faint smell of smoke close to the small stove, and Kyungsoo felt his insides knot for no apparent reason.

 

 

The next few days were a flurry of events, so blended into one another that Kyungsoo didn't know how to think straight anymore.

He was only able to catch his breath whenever he had his usual banter with Baekhyun on Kakaotalk, and surprisingly, whenever Chanyeol talked to him about idle topics. They somehow calmed Kyungsoo down, and even brought smiles to his face.

After a couple of weeks, things started to settle: Chanyeol interned at the radio place and he was finally getting a hang of it, which Kyungsoo knew he would. The guy was so talented and smooth and likeable that there was no way he could not do well. Soon enough, he was even catching the attention of his seniors, and Kyungsoo secretly felt proud whenever his flatmate told him about how everyone at his workplace adored him.

Kyungsoo, on the other hand, had taken a part-time job – an 'arubaito' in Japanese – as a personal trainer at a nearby fitness facility, which suited him because it was just light-weight work (both literally and figuratively) that he could do for the moment. He was also taking classes for Japanese, so he could get around better, without always relying on Chanyeol.

As for their superpowers – Chanyeol kept that only within the walls of their flat, though Kyungsoo was sure that the other used it sometimes whenever he could disappear without people noticing, so that he could reappear home through an open window. As for the super boy, he had enough training to make his strength only seem slightly unusual for his stature, but not enough to cause anyone to suspect anything beyond that. 

The tempo of their lives was finally slowing down to a routine that was steady and didn't require for them to run back and forth, filling applications, papers, informing bureaucrats of their presence without disclosing their past.

Little did Kyungsoo know it only meant that other aspects of life would finally have a chance to emerge.

Like that of relationships.

"Do you want … to go on a date?" Chanyeol had asked one night, out of the blue, his hands in his pockets, after they had eaten some good old homemade Jajangmyeon.

Kyungsoo had frozen up.

"I mean – of course if you don't want to… I just thought I could try, cause…" Chanyeol quickly added.

"Cause it wouldn't hurt to try," Kyungsoo completed with a fist going through Chanyeol's shoulder that had instantly turned into smoke. The taller man then disappeared and materialized behind the shorter.

It was a strange nostalgic throwback to the old days, and Kyungsoo just smiled while Chanyeol was still behind him.

"You should stop hitting me?" 

"You shouldn't re-use old phrases."

"Only did because you did too," Chanyeol laughed, and Kyungsoo turned around.

"So you wanted to…"

"Date?" Chanyeol completed with a hopeful expression.

"What did you have in mind?"

"Maybe a movie date," Chanyeol thought for a bit. "Maybe some katsudon afterwards. Maybe – "

"I'll think about it," Kyungsoo cut in. 

And as if a balloon had just popped and the mood had gone down a drain with a gutter-y noise, Chanyeol exhaled slowly, and in the next moment he dissipated, and reappeared on the sofa, where he turned on his laptops, and holographic screens appeared on two sides of the room.

"Is that your way of telling me that you're going to unhealthily continue watching porn movies with that one actor that looks like me?" Kyungsoo asked.

Chanyeol didn't say anything at first. "You should be glad that you're not a hacker, and that Baekhyun isn't digging my folders out for you to see."

Kyungsoo leaned back against his chair.

"I'll go take a shower."

"Sure," Chanyeol responded dismissively. He was evidently upset.

 

 

Kyungsoo let the cold water trickle down his face, neck, chest, rest of his body. He had felt a bit too warm.

He could still smell the smoke on him. The scent of Chanyeol who had been so close.

He recalled about all the bouts and lines they used to throw each other whenever they had fought before, as superhero and supervillain. 

It had always been the same things, over and over, and Kyungsoo had taken it for granted back then because he had thought it was the villain's way of getting to his nerves. Like it was part of their job description to do so.

On one hand, he never thought much about it anymore, because Chanyeol as Park Chanyeol had been overly affable. And they had grown to be good friends, if he was allowed to say.

But on the other, Kyungsoo was growing self-conscious of the whole situation. He was sharing a flat with an archenemy who carried a torch for him.

However, Chanyeol never made any advances – he gave Kyungsoo enough personal space and never overdid anything so the shorter man had completely forgotten about the other's undying love and schoolgirl crush.

He turned off the water, the faucet making a screeching sound it never did before, and Kyungsoo leaned against the tiles for a while, his mind going blank. He was a little cold, a little tired, and a little unnerved.

He stepped out – almost slipping – but he caught onto the edge of the sink and steadied himself. It would have been embarrassing if he fell there. He could somehow picture Chanyeol rushing in, worried, only to see Kyungsoo in his fullest glory.

Kyungsoo quickly shook the thought away. "That was odd," he laughed at himself before slipping into his pjs.

 

A few days after, of them just proceeding like any other day prior to Chanyeol's request, Baekhyun had asked to meet up with Kyungsoo since it had been a while and they all needed to catch up. His childhood friend then said that Kyungsoo should bring Chanyeol too. The more the merrier, and all the arguments Kyungsoo couldn't argue against.

"Baekhyun asked for us to get together. Want to come?" Kyungsoo asked one night, after they had eaten dumplings that Chanyeol had cooked up.

"Ah! Yeah, sure. It's been a while! I sort of miss Chen and his electric shocks, too, haha," Chanyeol had responded rather gleefully.

"Why in the world would you miss those?" Kyungsoo frowned.

"Well, haha, I think they're… a way to make me feel like I'm real sometimes? That I'm tangible… That I'm part of this … physical world in more than just a gaseous form," Chanyeol went silent, and Kyungsoo swallowed dryly.

It was awful to end on that note, but that was how their short-lived chat ended. It was disheartening, to say the least.

Especially when Kyungsoo's power was all about… physicality. He had punched Smoker countless times in their past battles, yet Chanyeol had only felt tangible and real with Chen, and only because they had elemental powers that Kyungsoo did not have. This left a bitter taste in Kyungsoo's mouth no matter how he wrapped his mind around it.

Kyungsoo didn't know what this feeling was: it sank slowly from his chest and into his gut, and somehow he just wanted to roll on the floor, to a corner, and just sleep it off, just like what he used to do when he was a superhero on a tiny break from being an exemplary Messiah with divine powers.

But instead, he had to move on, needed to get ready for bed, as always, so he could wake up early the next day and head to the gym, follow up on his client who wanted ripped abs by the end of the year, which was coming close. Christmas merchandises were filling the shelves in the stores, and everything slowly turned red, green, and-or white.

 

 

 

Turned out, they met up in Baekhyun and Jongdae's flat because that way they could feel freer about their powers. (After signing a pact that none of them would use said powers too wildly, of course.)

Chanyeol had offered to cook – and Baekhyun and Jongdae had bought gifts and alcohol with the extras that Jongdae had gotten from work – he had become a voice actor now, after having quit the vigilante organization.

"It's been so long," Baekhyun practically tackled Kyungsoo down when he had opened the door, but the guy was still weightless so it was just a fierce hug, if anything at all, and Kyungsoo smiled because he did indeed miss his friend.

Jongdae and Chanyeol greeted each other rather curtly at first, but soon after, they had an arm over one another and they were talking about old times like brothers.

"Who would have thought they'd actually be chums when they had the most intense and bloodcurdling battles in the legacy of Korean superheroes?" Baekhyun commented. "Or that you would live with Smoker, even."

"Yeah," Kyungsoo responded absentmindedly. "Who would have thought that even you as a secret psychic, could not have guessed?"

Baekhyun laughed. "God, I've long retired from that job. I bet I wouldn't be able to read your mind anymore. I've been so out of touch."

"That's a pity," Kyungsoo said, he then dropped his gaze. 

"Why? Was there someone whose mind you needed me to read for you?" Baekhyun winked.

Kyungsoo smiled briefly. "Maybe."

Baekhyun eyed his best friend curiously before relaxing back into his chair. "You're not serious," he stated casually.

"Well, I mean, I'd rather just talk about it rather than have you guess through people's minds."

Baekhyun leaned closer. "Is this about…" and he cocked his head towards Chanyeol and Jongdae.

Kyungsoo stayed quiet.

"You guys didn't get it on yet. I won my bet against Jongdae," was all Baekhyun commented on.

"You had a bet," Kyungsoo glared at Baekhyun.

"Of course we did. Jongdae doesn't understand how you guys could live under the same roof, have a lovey-dovey history, and not do anything when you've only got one bed."

"And a couch," Kyungsoo clarified.

"I bet against the fact that you guys would have made a move," Baekhyun said. "But I highly doubt the couch was what made the difference."

Kyungsoo gulped nervously. "Then what—"

"Oh, don't pretend you don't know, Soo. It's clear as daylight!"

"Whatever 'it' is, it's only clear to you."

Baekhyun smiled enigmatically before he slipped off his stool and walked to the fridge. "Do you want a beer, by the way?"

It was a simple question, but Kyungsoo blanked out. Baekhyun sighed and brought one extra over, placing it next to the super boy, before throwing two cans at Chanyeol and Jongdae.

"How's life, though?" Baekhyun then prompted. 

"It's fine. I'm getting around."

"Have you started … singing or anything?"

Kyungsoo shook his head. He had been so busy just keeping up with Japanese, training, and thinking about his Chanyeol-shaped problem that he had not been able to do anything about his non-existent singing career. When his gaze locked with Baekhyun though, something glinted in his best friend's eyes, and he felt like Baekhyun knew all the excuses before Kyungsoo could even blurt them out.

"Well, anyways, we've only been here for three, four months right?" Baekhyun shrugged. "You still have time, I guess? But hey, did you ever ask Chanyeol if you could… go to his working place? Maybe you'll garner interest—"

"He never invited me," Kyungsoo cut in. "It'd feel strange for me to ask…"

"Not very thoughtful of him," Baekhyun said, frowning. "I would have long invited you over. Talk to my seniors about you and your budding talent."

"He's never heard me sing."

Baekhyun paused.

"Well, no fucking _wonder_ ," Baekhyun hissed, "Shit, I can't believe you didn't tell him," he sounded a bit furious at Kyungsoo, and it made the latter clench his fists nervously. "Why haven't you?"

"I dunno," Kyungsoo shrugged. "Though honestly, just because you heard me sing at a karaoke doesn't mean anything and – "

"Well, you could have confirmed it with Chanyeol. He's a musician, plays the guitar and probably the piano too if you asked and he works as a DJ's intern at a radio station. I bet he knows all about singing talent."

Kyungsoo knew all that. He knew he could have asked for confirmation, but it was extremely hard for him to do so for the exact same reasons.

He was so diffident that the thought of being rejected was also quite frightening. What if Chanyeol just snorted? What if Baekhyun and he were just tone deaf?

Baekhyun being Baekhyun, seemed to have caught on though, what with the silence, and Kyungsoo looked away morosely.

"Look, I'm only saying this 'cause I'm confident Chanyeol's going to fall straight back in love with you if not fall in love a second time when he hears you sing," his best friend reassured him. "He'll be at your feet again and serenading to you like he used to."

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. "I'm looking to have my abilities confirmed, not make my flatmate fall in love with me."

"I see love in all equations. I stand by my point," Baekhyun replied, and stared hard at Kyungsoo, expectant.

"I'll see," Kyungsoo then said. "I'll ask him one of these days."

Baekhyun took a sip from his can. "I'll be your personal reminder about it. I'll text you every hour if I have to."

"Text him about what?" Chanyeol's voice then came in, and both Kyungsoo and Baekhyun almost leaped from their seats.

"Shit, you almost gave me a mild seizure," Baekhyun retorted.

"It's good for the heart, makes it stronger," Chanyeol said.

"Seizures?"

"Almost-seizures," the taller man clarified. He then placed his empty can of beer on the counter, between the other two's. 

"So what were you going to text him about?"

Kyungsoo tried to telepathically scream "DON'T TELL HIM, BAEKHYUN, OR I WILL PERSONALLY STRANGLE YOU!!!!" but though it seemed to have communicated quite well – judging from Baekhyun's tiny wink – his best friend just had to go ahead and do it.

"Text him to remind him that he has to tell his dick-brained flatmate that he can sing," Baekhyun answered.

Jongdae then crept up on them. "What about dicks and brains?"

"I can't believe that's what you got from my sentence," Baekhyun said in a stern yet playful manner that almost made Kyungsoo mentally vomit.

"Wait. Kyungsoo can sing?" Chanyeol then turned to the super boy in question.

"This is so not about dicks and brains," Jongdae turned to Baekhyun before turning back. " _Yeah!_ His voice is to die for. You should take him out to a karaoke bar one of these days – mind you, probably against his will. He sings brilliantly. A bit raw, but he's got all that power and energy pent-up in him."

"He's a power singer," Baekhyun agreed. "I mean, I guess it's natural but – he's got a good voice too. Nice baritone."

Chanyeol blinked and eyed Kyungsoo. "Why didn't you tell me about this sooner?"

Kyungsoo was so overwhelmed with the compliments that he wanted to just drop through the floor. 

"He's not confident about it because he thinks we're just being nice friends. I think after years of him seeing me flattering and flirting with some superheroes just didn't help," Baekhyun answered for him.

Chanyeol then looked at Kyungsoo with something in his eyes that Kyungsoo couldn't read. It felt like a pang of disappointment, but… it didn't make much sense for Chanyeol to be upset, right?

Still, no matter how Kyungsoo looked at it, the flat glint in Chanyeol's eyes seemed to read, _"You didn't trust me enough to tell me."_

It made Kyungsoo's insides twist uncomfortably, but he just pretended he didn't see it, and joined Baekhyun and Jongdae as they started preparing the table.

 

It was a bit late, but Chanyeol and Kyungsoo managed to catch the last train on the Tokaido line back to Yokohama. The city lights were slowly fading away into the back as the train moved along, and lamp posts that lined the railway sent their yellowed lights into the car, letting them sway back and forth with the movement.

They were the only ones in their carriage, and there was one seat between them. Chanyeol sat casually, with a leg over the other, and his arms stretched out on both sides. Kyungsoo sat straight and still, looking at the edge of the seats opposite to them.

"When were you going to tell me?" Chanyeol then asked, in a very soft mumble, and Kyungsoo froze up almost instantly.

Sometimes, Kyungsoo actually missed the old days as a superhero – he had so much more arrogance and confidence in him and he never ran out of them. He always had things to say back, and they had always been witty and poignant, but now he just couldn't, and it frustrated him so much. He couldn't even come up with anything sarcastic anymore. He stared at his hands, and wondered why it had been easier back then – to just fling a punch line carried with an actual fist without this much difficulty countering the other's snarky jab.

Now anything he said just felt defeated, passive, and dull if he didn't just stick to being quiet. Being quiet not even by choice – like he used to when he could intimidate his opponents. He was now quiet because he didn't have an answer to all of these questions.

Chanyeol slid closer to Kyungsoo, and the shorter man flinched at the movement, cornering into the side of his seat that had the pane that separated the bench and the double-doors.

"D.O.," Chanyeol then muttered, and it made Kyungsoo fall straight back to all the times Chanyeol had called him D.O. Flamingo, to all the times Chanyeol had declared his eternal and unconditional love for him as if they were the easiest things to say in the world.

"It's just me. I'm still Smoker, you know," Chanyeol said softly, and the effect was disastrous on Kyungsoo. The shorter man broke into cold sweat, and he was starting to breath unevenly. 

He couldn't understand what Chanyeol was doing, even when he started dissipating – in such a familiar way it hurt – and reappearing, this time into Kyungsoo's personal space.

"You used to talk to me more when I was Smoker," Chanyeol said.

The train slowed down and stopped at a station, picking up one passenger, which made Chanyeol sigh and lean away from Kyungsoo.

The passenger was an old man with a nice fedora hat and a yakuza face who went to sit in one of the furthest benches from them, way beyond earshot. Not that Chanyeol minded to be heard, surely, Kyungsoo thought. He had been speaking rather mysteriously enough for no one to understand.

But silence ensued, and it submerged all forms of noise. The train clicking by on the rails, the sound of the rush of scenery that went by them outside the windows, the minute beat of their hearts pulsing. They all felt distant from Kyungsoo.

At some point, Kyungsoo himself realised that, while he was tough, and practically made of iron, he was nothing against all this. Nothing against emotions, nothing against the intangible, the ungraspable.

Nothing against the abstract that was personified into Park Chanyeol. 

Kyungsoo closed his eyes, and took a deep breath.

He missed having some script. Something he could play along to. Something he could pass off as just him role-playing, enacting an alter ego because he had to. And he knew he had to let that all go, because the past was the past, and it was one he couldn't return to, but for this time… just this time… he wondered if he could borrow D.O. again.

Just because he didn't know how else to proceed.

And besides. Kyungsoo thought. 

Smoker started it.

 

The hit made a dent into the plastic seat, and the impact had been loud enough for the old man to turn his head at them in utter shock. D.O.'s arm was circled by smoke, his fist having gone through a gap on the left of Smoker's chest.

At first, it seemed that Smoker was bewildered, but he caught on fast, and before D.O. could retract his fist, Smoker disappeared and turned into a haze that expanded into the length of the car. 

It was the first time Smoker used this tactic on him, and D.O. instantly took it as a threat. He wiped the sweat off his forehead before he stood up into the smoke, and closed his eyes.

"What did you want to talk about," he said, keeping his eyes closed, and his fists up front in a defensive mode. He didn't have his iron gloves – nor his choker, for that matter – but he could feel his frustration forming a sort of armour around his hands.

"About you. And me," the voice came from behind, and D.O. shoved his elbow back, before using the shift of his body weight as he turned to send a blow into the empty white fog.

"Missed me by an inch," Smoker said, but there was something sad in his tone that angered D.O. more than the 'miss' could ever have.

He swiped his right arm over rather blindly, and then even kicked up into the air, but all in vain.

It was something nostalgic nevertheless – and it was exhilarating, it made D.O. keep trying.

"Spare me from the talk," he said spitefully. 

"Not this time," came the response and then unexpectedly, D.O. felt a jab at his rib, and in the next second, Smoker's face – no, or was it Chanyeol's? – reappeared in front of him, so close their noses were almost touching.

D.O. coughed as he repressed the sharp pain that coursed throughout his body. He bit down on his lower lip hard, and blood oozed out a little, but he didn't really have the mind to really feel the pain.

Smoker retracted his fist, and there was an apologetic look in his eyes. D.O. didn't want to see it. He hated it. 

"Not this time," Smoker repeated angrily, and somehow images of Smoker and Chanyeol superimposed in D.O.'s vision, making him feel lightheaded. 

Not this time, Kyungsoo thought. But what did he mean?

Chanyeol leaned down and their noses bump, and their uneven breaths started to mix. Kyungsoo looked up into the other's eyes, got lost in their depthless fog.

Not this time, Chanyeol whispered, almost against Kyungsoo's lips. The words made Kyungsoo shiver all over, and Chanyeol placed his hands on each side of the other's hips, and Kyungsoo had his hands on the other's shoulders, and suddenly they were too close.

But before anything could happen, the train braked unceremoniously, and Kyungsoo was flung back. Chanyeol, reacting faster, dissipated into the smoke only to materialize under Kyungsoo before he could hit the floor, cushioning the super boy from the impact.

The lights were suddenly switched off, leaving only the ephemeral green that came from the emergency exit signs that were above several windows and doors. Its green sheen was then cast onto the old man, who stood at the furthest corner from them, a hand still on the emergency brake lever, a face white with horror.

 

It was all rather anticlimactic. Kyungsoo closed his eyes, and felt Chanyeol slowly wrapping his arms around him.

Kyungsoo then relaxed into the other's embrace, almost too tired to think about what they should do next.

"We need to go, Soo," Chanyeol whispered when they started hearing trampling feet approaching steadily though they were probably still a few cars away. 

Kyungsoo agreed. They couldn't get caught. But he was so tired that he could barely lift a finger.

It was probably all the alcohol they had too. He felt so sleepy, and so incredibly heavy.

But before he could think anything else, everything went black.

 

 

Something felt disastrously familiar when Kyungsoo was woken up with two slaps across the cheeks and a violent shake. He was almost expecting a bucket of ice to come along and mentally prepared for it.

Except it never came.

Instead, he took in another slap, which made him open his eyes slightly.

"D.O., wake up," he heard a familiar voice say.

It was dark – nothing like the blinding lights that Baekhyun used to turn on whenever he was trying to wake Kyungsoo up for an unexpected night shift.

He blinked several times before his vision finally focused. 

They were behind a tall hedge. Beyond the hedge was the railroad.

And as if he had just been revived, Kyungsoo suddenly coughed, gasping for air, and the man who was next to him pulled him up and patted his back.

"I can't carry you home," Smoker said. "You're way heavier than I thought. Basically crushed some of my bones, I think, when I caught you back there on the train."

For ten whole seconds Kyungsoo had no idea what Smoker was talking about at all, but everything soon came rushing to him, as the key words repeated in his mind. Crushed. Caught. Train. The cushioned fall. Smoker not being able to transform into smoke otherwise Kyungsoo could have had a concussion, or hurt his tailbone what with his monstrous weight (that came with his superpower). He was as heavy as a baby whale, last he checked.

"I managed to get us out, but I don't think I can go any further. I ... can barely feel my legs right now."

Kyungsoo quickly sat up straight and was already feeling around his flatmate's shin, knee, and thigh to gauge the damage. Chanyeol hissed at the touch, as if it burned.

"It's fine. They'll heal. Just not within the next six hours, but I'm fine, doesn't hurt that much," Chanyeol reassured, and Kyungsoo just looked at him worriedly. "Are you okay though?"

Kyungsoo frowned. He was only hurting in one area, around his ribcage, but it was a dull ache. He had had much worse before. It barely felt like anything.

"I'm fine."

"I hit you on your side. You sure?"

"It's fine. I can definitely walk," Kyungsoo asserted tersely. "I could carry you."

"I was waiting for you to suggest. I'm weightless anyways," Chanyeol agreed. "Made of smoke and all."

"Well, that only comes as redundant since my power is super strength," Kyungsoo returned almost mechanically. 

Chanyeol smiled gently. "True. You'll carry me bridal style, then?"

Kyungsoo held his breath before just chuckling. "If you'd like."

It was obviously what Chanyeol would have liked. He practically jumped onto Kyungsoo before the other could even react. The shorter boy just blinked as Chanyeol gripped to his shoulder, and settled into his arms with a happy sigh.

Chanyeol was almost as weightless as Baekhyun, Kyungsoo thought, but somehow it wasn't quite the same. Kyungsoo had carried Baekhyun around several times for various stunts, but Chanyeol felt different in a whole other sense: it felt like Kyungsoo needed to pull the guy down, or he would escape like smoke.

But it wasn't like Kyungsoo could tell for sure, not when Chanyeol was so close to his face now. It was unnerving.

Granted, of course, they had come face-to-face many times before, but never as just Chanyeol and Kyungsoo. It had always been under the masks of Smoker and D.O., so this was definitely a novel experience. An entirely novel experience.

Chanyeol then rested his head onto Kyungsoo's chest, and his silvery hair tickled the shorter man's nose. It smelled of smoke, unsurprisingly, but it somehow also smelled like something else. Something better than smoke.

"I've always dreamed of you carrying me like this," Chanyeol said, rather cheesily, and Kyungsoo would have dropped him if it weren't for his injuries.

"I should have known you were the fluffy princess type," Kyungsoo responded.

Chanyeol laughed wholeheartedly. 

 

 

Things were a bit more than the conventional awkward on their way home. Kyungsoo had carried Chanyeol effortlessly to the closest street, where they luckily caught a cab.

The ride cost an arm and a leg relative to their salaries, but at least they made it back without any other casualty.

Although Chanyeol looked rather happy about his 'ride', they hadn't said a thing at all for a while even when they entered the flat. Kyungsoo just unwound his scarf, took off his coat, and hung them in the closet after he laid Chanyeol onto the couch.

"We made good progress," Chanyeol commented.

Kyungsoo stopped in his tracks. He had been about to head into his bedroom.

"I suppose," he responded.

"Come here, Soo."

Kyungsoo turned to look at his flatmate who had his arms spread apart to welcome him to his abode, which was technically their living room. He took a deep breath before he trotted over.

"What?" he then said.

"Come closer."

Kyungsoo did, and when he was within reach, Chanyeol grabbed for his wrist, pulled closer before fiddling with Kyungsoo's palm for a while.

"You know, I didn't get to say it, all those times," he started.

"Say what?" Kyungsoo said, looking anywhere but at his flatmate.

"Say that I like you."

"Not directly, no," Kyungsoo nodded cautiously. "But it doesn't make a difference, does it? I know that you—"

"I like you."

Silence filled the room, and Kyungsoo could only hear his heartbeat again. It was a thing he should start getting used to.

 

"I know," he murmured back, just as some kind of filler, surprised he could even say anything at all. But maybe it was because he really _knew_.

There was no way anything else could explain what Chanyeol was doing for him. Chanyeol had been his archenemy, but now that Kyungsoo thought back, Smoker had never actually hurt him back when he was D.O. the superboy. And what could explain why Chanyeol would take care of him now? Cook for him? Make his bed? And be hurt that Kyungsoo didn't tell him about singing, about whatever Kyungsoo had been hung up about lately? 

And Chanyeol never ever made any advances. Chanyeol never jumped him whenever he could have while Kyungsoo was showering or sleeping. He never even held his hand _that way_ , perhaps for fear that Kyungsoo would have retracted it in disgust.

But here it was. A raw confession that made Kyungsoo feel like he had never quite known the extent of Chanyeol's love for him.

 

And maybe that was how Kyungsoo had fallen for Chanyeol, but that wasn't for him to admit just yet.

 

 

Chanyeol hadn't smoked in so long, and it was funny how Kyungsoo didn't really notice that fact until his flatmate opened a new box of cigarettes, taking one out and lighting it. 

The scent of smoke filled their apartment almost instantly, and Kyungsoo didn't mind it so much, didn't really feel like he felt the difference, but he made it a point that he had to mention something about it.

"I've heard that second-hand smoke is just as bad, if not worse, than first-hand smoke," he said, and it was probably the most boring conversation starter, but he was trying.

"I make sure the smoke doesn't get into your body," Chanyeol replied.

"But I can smell it."

"It's just the scent."

"I see."

"I'm trying to quit anyways."

"But you're made of smoke."

"True, but there's an extent to how much energy I have to keep it away from you all the time."

Kyungsoo nodded. "Hadn't you stopped for a long time before this one?"

"Yeah. Didn't smoke ever since we got to Japan."

"Then why… why break the streak tonight?" Kyungsoo asked.

"It's just for my legs. They'll heal faster this way," Chanyeol explained. 

The superboy fell silent, but then he leaned closer to the other – they sat side by side on the couch now – and even laid his head against his flatmate's shoulder.

"Did it feel real?" Kyungsoo asked out of the blue.

Chanyeol blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Did it feel real when my body crashed into yours? Like you said Chen made you feel real and part of the physical world whenever he sent an electric current through you."

"Ah."

"I'm making an effort to have conversation, don't just 'ah' me," Kyungsoo said.

Chanyeol threw his head back and chuckled. "No, haha, give me some time to let that sink in."

"Let what sink in?"

"The fact that you had been jealous."

"Don't get so full of yourself," Kyungsoo said.

Chanyeol leaned onto Kyungsoo's head.

"Can you sing for me?" he then requested after another puff of smoke. Kyungsoo bit his lip nervously.

"I don't know what to sing."

"Any song. Something slow maybe? Or whatever you last heard."

Kyungsoo closed his eyes. 

"You know that anime movie you talked about a while ago? I watched it and I liked the theme song—"

"— it doesn't need to be a song I know, but yeah sure."

Kyungsoo nodded once. "Alright." There was a stiff pause.

Chanyeol cut in timidly. "Only if you're comfortable with me, of course—"

"— I am. It's not that."

"?"

"I'm comfortable right now, just a bit nervous."

Chanyeol exhaled smoke slowly. "Well, it's just me."

"Maybe you're all that matters," Kyungsoo replied without thinking it through. Chanyeol lifted his head away and sat up straight to look at the shorter boy with a surprised expression.

But Kyungsoo took that exact moment to start the song, acapella, without making sure if he'd started at the right octave, just so he could avoid Chanyeol's questions, postpone them into oblivion, if he could, because he wasn't so sure why he had just admitted that.

 

_見てよ空を　今日は　こんなにも晴れているよ　だから_  
(Look at the sky. It's so clear out today, so.)

 

He started off shakily, but Chanyeol seemed entranced. In any case, it matched the mood of the song itself. There was something calming about Kyungsoo's shakiness.

 

_散歩でもしにいかない？_  
(Would you like to go out on a walk?)  
仲直りがしたいんだ　僕は  
(I want to make things right between us)  
君にそう言ったんだよ　なのに  
(That's what I told you, but…)  
Kyungsoo inhaled noiselessly, before closing his eyes, and continuing.

 

__  
君は知らんぷりをしてる  
(You're pretending that you don't know)  
見たことないような顔で  
(Making a face I've never seen before)  
そんなに怒らせたなら謝るよ  
(If I made you this angry, I apologize)  
ところでさっきからどうして  
(But, since a while ago, why…)  
君はずっと泣いてるの？  
(Why have you been crying?)  
He took another deep breath. Then he let it out and poured into the first lines of the chorus.

 

__  
まるで僕がいないみたいにさ  
(Pretending as if I'm not even here)  
君はまたそうやって意地悪するよ  
(That's how you tease me again and again)  
重ねた手を握りしめて  
(You'd grasp my hand when they're close)  
君は　けど僕には気づかないよ  
(But you never really notice that I'm there)  
Chanyeol's expression was inscrutable when Kyungsoo opened his eyes after he had finished the first three stanzas – the only three he could remember by heart with his poor grasp on Japanese. 

Silence filled the whole apartment and reverberated from every wall, and Kyungsoo just swallowed dryly, unsure if any of this was a good sign.

"I don't know how long I can hold myself back anymore," Chanyeol finally said, his eyes slightly lidded, his look hazier than usual, and Kyungsoo's heart probably skipped several beats. "That was ... amazing," Chanyeol finished. He shook off the excess of ash on the ember end of his cigarette. It turned into smoke that curled upwards.

Kyungsoo's nerves loosen slightly at the vague compliment. He could tell Chanyeol had been earnest - if the intense expression told anything at all.

Normally, if Kyungsoo were just Kyungsoo, he would've probably just dismissed it, closed the conversation and probably evaded to the washroom under the pretence of a shower, but this time he wanted to take the risk, make the jump. 

Maybe it was because of his talk with Baekhyun, or the alcohol fuelling him up belatedly, or just Chanyeol's presence pouring into the air in the form of smoke that was getting to Kyungsoo like a rush of blood to the head.

Maybe it was all that added up together, or maybe he simply wanted to venture out of his comfort zone.

So he asked, instead of shrinking away.

"Hold yourself back from what?"

It made Chanyeol smirk, and he ran a hand through his ashy grey hair. A waft of smoke slowly crept up thinly up into the air, but Kyungsoo didn't bristle. He only carefully kept eye contact with his flatmate.

"You know very well what," Chanyeol replied.

"No. Enlighten me," Kyungsoo pushed, even though he had some ideas.

Chanyeol's eyes went dark with black mist. 

"From pinning you down and kissing you breathless."

Of course, Kyungsoo thought rather sheepishly. He looked at Chanyeol and watched the smoker take another sip from his cigarette. It was almost at its end, and Kyungsoo made a grab for it as he leaned closer.

"From forcing an answer out of you," Chanyeol continued, letting Kyungsoo have his cigarette. "Be it negative or positive."

Kyungsoo stood still.

"It's closer to positive," he decided to divulge, with a cock of his head.

"From forcing it into an a hundred percent positive then," Chanyeol amended, "I don't take partial answers."

"You also don't seem like you'd take an a hundred percent negative," Kyungsoo pointed out.

"I'd just have to work harder if you said no," Chanyeol replied with a glint of determination in his eyes.

Kyungsoo smiled briefly before he placed the cigarette between his lips and inhaled. From the corner of his eyes, he could see Chanyeol hold his breath as he watched. Kyungsoo had never smoked before, so the fill of its formlessness pervading his mouth, lungs and conscience made him cough almost instantly.

Chanyeol patted his back, and Kyungsoo just returned the cigarette, his eyes closed and an arm over his mouth. Somehow at that moment, he felt like smoke was everywhere and he couldn't get out of it.

"How is it that the smoke detector doesn't catch on," Kyungsoo asked hoarsely before he slipped off the couch, still coughing a bit more as he went to grab the towel that draped over the back of a chair. 

Chanyeol snorted, taking another sip of his dying cig. "I always make sure the smoke doesn't reach it. Taking a shower?"

Kyungsoo took a few steps towards the bathroom before pausing.

"Yeah," he murmured. "It's getting late."

 

He wasn't sure what he was doing. It wasn't like he had never touched himself before. But this was the first time he'd felt anything like this.

The cold water streamed down his hot body. With one hand against the cool wall tiles, and the other pumping his half-hard dick, he tried muffling his moans. They came out nonetheless because he needed oxygen, needed to gasp for air.

It was probably because of the cigarette.

And the smoke that stuck to his skin. The smoke that now ran rampant in his blood. The smoke that invaded his flat, his home. 

Of course he thought of Park Chanyeol.

His dark penetrative eyes, rosy lips, blushing cheeks, his confident smile as he disappeared into white smoke.

"Ahhh… mmm… ahh," Kyungsoo let slip between his lips. 

It had also probably been triggered by the adrenaline built up from the song. Since he only sang less than half of it, he hadn't been able to let it out fully and it felt like something was stuck in his gut. It added to how erratic his fist was twisting and going up and down his member.

It wasn't even a great song, Kyungsoo thought bitterly. It was just some stupid song that he hadn't stopped looping because he had watched an anime movie on a whim when he had just arrived in Japan, and it stuck with him all the time, for some reason. It was like his character song.

But that didn't explain why he could imagine Chanyeol's hard gaze on him when he had sung, with his eyes closed. 

Nor did it explain why he was doing this while thinking of him.

 

 

"Was that supposed to be my answer?" Chanyeol grumbled when Kyungsoo stepped back into the living room in an oversized shirt and boxers.

"What?"

"The fucking moans coming from the rough direction of the bathroom?"

"Next door neighbour I suppose," Kyungsoo lied, averting his gaze, busying himself by hanging his towel and carefully putting some clothes into the hamper.

"We don't have neighbours."

"We don't?"

"We don't." 

"Ah."

Chanyeol crossed his arms over his chest. "Going to bed?"

Kyungsoo didn't turn around. "Yeah."

"Escapist."

Kyungsoo sighed.

"I think you owe me an answer, at the very least, before you shrink back into your shell—" came a grumpy reply, but Kyungsoo cut it off.

"Want to join me?" he said.

Kyungsoo could feel the other's stare burn into his back, and soon enough, there was a very light fizzy noise – one he learned to recognise as Chanyeol's smoky essence moving about. A heartbeat later, Chanyeol was right behind him, his nose buried into the back of Kyungsoo's neck.

"You're going to be death of me," Chanyeol whispered against his skin. "You smell so good."

"I smell like you right now."

"Really?" Chanyeol said as an excuse to take several more whiffs. 

However, Kyungsoo couldn't keep away from the lukewarm sensation of sleepiness, so they languidly tumbled into the bedroom, arguing insipidly over scents and smells and nonsense before Kyungsoo was tucked in. He vaguely recalled Chanyeol climbing in from the other side of the bed, and that they faced each other, lying on their sides, and then perhaps Chanyeol had taken his hand, pressed their palms against each other before intertwining their fingers, but Kyungsoo couldn't quite remember anything more as he'd slipped into sleep.

 

 

Kyungsoo had woken up with no one beside him in his bed, and as much as he thought he wouldn't care, he did think the emptiness – something that he should have long been used – was disheartening. But it was Monday and it was Chanyeol's early morning shift week at the radio station, so it made sense that there wouldn't be anyone even though it was only six.

Save for the one cramp a little below his ribs, he felt refreshed when he sat up and stretched his arms over his head before relaxing back into the headboard. Surprisingly, he had slept extremely well – he hadn't slept this well for a long time. 

When he trotted out of his bedroom, he noticed a few bowls covered with plates on the table. He walked over and took a plate off and saw that Chanyeol had cooked again – and this time it looked like a Japanese breakfast – a wakame miso soup, rice with a fried egg over it, cold tofu. There was also a small unopened plastic container of natto beans on the side, and a note attached to it. 

He took it off, and it read, "I'm sure I hit you pretty heavily so you better eat up. My seniors at work all told me how healthy natto beans are. Don't throw them out. I ate mine so you should eat yours!"

It was still a foreign feeling to Kyungsoo, being taken care of. He was much used to cooking himself dishes that only he ate – kimchi spaghetti, whatnot – but since they had arrived, Chanyeol had always taken over before he could do anything.

But that aside, Kyungsoo thought about Chanyeol's legs, and wondered if they had fully healed. 

So Kyungsoo just placed the note back, and walked to get the hamper and do the laundry and turned on the radio to listen to the weather forecast.

 

Kyungsoo took off his earphones when he arrived home from class. The warmth of his flat's heating hit his cheeks that were red from the winter's cold, and he sighed at the soothing feeling.

The clock in the hallway just clicked to five thirty when he slipped off his boots. He peered around for Chanyeol, but the apartment seemed pregnant with silence. He took off his bag and parka, hanging them up next to the mirror.

"Groceries, maybe?" Kyungsoo thought aloud, as he walked to the kitchenette sink for a glass of water. That was when he saw a wrapped container that had a note on it. He approached it and plucked the message off. It read, "Hey, I'll be busy tonight, so here's my first attempt at tonkatsu. Hope it doesn't taste like rubber."

Kyungsoo didn't really think much about it; he did wonder what Chanyeol might have been busy with, for maybe a split second, but the meal bundle was still warm, and soon he settled down at the table to eat.

"Itadakimasu," he said with a cock of his head, wondering if he had remembered the phrase correctly. He had always just repeated it after Chanyeol, after all.

 

It was probably on the third morning or fourth, that Kyungsoo realised that Chanyeol was avoiding him. 

He'd woken in the middle of the night and he had definitely felt Chanyeol sleeping soundly next to him on the bed, his feet almost touching Kyungsoo's though the distance between them was still wide. But when morning came, Kyungsoo would open his eyes to just white bed sheets without a trace of smoke.

The notes on the food were misleading. They always expressed some sort of casualness, some sort of everydayness that Kyungsoo had believed in until the third time round. Now the words sounded cold and distant.

"A colleague taught me how to make an oyakodon – let me know if it's any good."

The food was always good, but Kyungsoo hadn't seen Chanyeol in three days straight, hadn't even texted him – though to be fair, Kyungsoo never checked them before, but ever since the other day he had been checking manually almost every five minutes, not sure what he was waiting for, but diligently refreshing his applications and notifications centre. He even wondered if he should just connect his choker – that old thing he had tucked away somewhere in his closet – just because it got to him faster that way, just in case he didn't catch a call or message when he had to put his phone on silent during class.

But otherwise, how on earth was he to tell Chanyeol if the food was any good? Chanyeol knew he didn't really know how to start text conversations. He was used to responding to people's messages.

After supper, Kyungsoo grabbed his coat and Chanyeol's sports bag, a battered grey Adidas – which was now his, practically, since he was the only one using it – and walked out of his flat. He had an appointment with his client at the gym.

On his way, he stopped at a red light, and the cold started biting into his skin – he had forgotten to bring his gloves. He shoved his hands deep into his coat's pockets, but they were rather shallow. He eyed the pedestrian's light, waiting impatiently for the red to turn green, his breath turning into white fog that dispersed into the wind.

He thought of Smoker in that instance, and suddenly wondered why Chanyeol wasn't back home when this week he was supposed to be on the morning shift.

He wasn't sure what to make of this whole Chanyeol avoiding him thing, but it had only been three days, so Kyungsoo wondered if he should just wait it out. Maybe Chanyeol was just out with friends – friends who actually answered his questions without delaying them or sending them down some galactic black hole, like Kyungsoo did.

It was probably better off that way too, he thought as he walked on the white lines of the crossroad.

 

A whole week later, it was still the same.

Of course, Kyungsoo had seen Chanyeol a few times – the guy was well alive, he had noted – but they never exchanged much and Chanyeol would always say he had a lot of work to do because the radio station was getting busy and he had to attend some meeting or another, so Kyungsoo would just nod, compliment on some of the food and waved him off.

It was for the best, he had thought. He found himself able to concentrate more on learning Japanese too, when his nose wasn't always so filled with smoke and his mind with fog. He had also finally learned some songs by heart – and he had gone once or twice to the karaoke bar alone just to try it out, test his voice, see how he fared.

He thought he was getting a hang of kanjis. Especially ones that he recognised over and over in all these love songs he'd been looping over the months. 

The loneliness did sometimes get to him though. At one point the company of textbooks and kanjis and songs just made him feel more miserable than anything else. He hadn't been talking with Baekhyun nor Jongdae either because they were on vacation somewhere in Taiwan for the Christmas holidays, probably stuffing their faces with greasy street food and bubble tea.

Kyungsoo sighed deeply and decided maybe he should head out for a walk – even though it was snowing lightly outside. He grabbed his coat and a couple of yens just in case he wanted to get something from the konbini. He was about to close the door when he remembered that maybe he wanted to take his music player too. 

He walked back into his room and grabbed a set of headphones and an iPod – an antique item Baekhyun had gotten him after they had moved out from Korea. Kyungsoo preferred it to his choker that also had music library functions. Sometimes technology that was too ahead of its time just didn't seem as friendly as a fourth generation mp3 player from forever ago.

The air outside wasn't as bad as he thought, and he put a Japanese song on loop – the one he had sung to Chanyeol. Probably not the best song to listen to, he had thought, but he really didn't feel like he was in a mood for anything else – and it was high time he learned this one by heart too.

He mouthed the lyrics noiselessly as he walked, whenever he was sure that no one was watching.

He was crossing a pedestrian's square when he noticed that there was a siren ringing on top of the music. He glanced to where it was coming from, sliding one side of the headphone off his ear.

Soon enough he saw a fire truck zoom by, with police cars and an ambulance tailing behind.

People were turning their heads towards the cacophony, and some old ladies had their gloved hands over their mouths. Some people whispered, wondering if there was a kaji – a fire incident – nearby. Yokohama usually didn't have much going on, so some of them looked a bit anxious and some hurried away in different directions.

Kyungsoo clicked his iPod to pause the song, and it cut off abruptly as if swallowed by the loud sirens.

 

Chanyeol was home when Kyungsoo came back.

"You had a walk?" he asked, and the shorter man just shrugged and nodded once, not saying anything else, which evidently made Chanyeol nervous. He rubbed his hands together, as if he were trying to rub away the cold, and Kyungsoo saw how red they were.

"You just came back?" 

"Yeah. Sorry," Chanyeol apologized promptly. "I had overtime at the radio station. They need a helper now on standby for two shifts in a row and I offered and…"

Kyungsoo blanked out at this point. 

"… Kyungsoo?"

"Yeah?" he answered absentmindedly.

"Er, I, um, did you want something to eat tonight?"

Kyungsoo had bought an onigiri at the convenience store on his way back. He shook his head, not looking at Chanyeol in the eyes at all, and answered, "I'll pass."

Chanyeol's disappointment was as tangible as the stiff smoky air.

"I'll make kimchi soup. Just in case you decide to have a midnight snack, 'kay?"

"Sure," Kyungsoo replied as he started for his room.

 

That night Kyungsoo had climbed into bed early – it was probably only about ten. He put on earphones and turned his ipod on, and it was still midway through the song he had sung to Chanyeol. He curled up in his duvet, closing his eyes and focusing on the words.

Chanyeol had come in about an hour later, climbed next to him – his back towards the taller man.

"Are you asleep?" he had asked, and Kyungsoo took a few seconds to decide whether he wanted to feign being asleep, or answer the question.

"Yes," he decided to respond grumpily.

"… Ah."

Kyungsoo left it at that and was about to turn up the volume on his player when he heard Chanyeol speak again.

"Can we hold hands tonight?"

Kyungsoo laid still. If he kept his back against Chanyeol without stirring, it would mean a 'no', right? He wanted to show he was upset that Chanyeol had avoided him for quite a few days.

"Please?"

Kyungsoo felt something tug at his heart when he heard the word, so he loosened his shoulders, turned onto his back slowly and put a hand out, a bit reluctantly.

Chanyeol grabbed it straightaway, his hand feeling cold and hard against Kyungsoo's. Their fingers interlaced slowly.

They stayed that way for the rest of the night, half an arm's length apart, hand in hand. Chanyeol fell asleep perhaps ten minutes after, and Kyungsoo was hanging on only because the song was still looping quietly against his ears, a never-ending lullaby that kept him for a bit longer before the tide of strange emotions washed over him and cradled him to sleep.

 

Kyungsoo decided that he wouldn't ever get used to Chanyeol's routine of disappearing in the morning. 

It used to be so different – their relationship, back when they had been a superhero and a supervillain. They practically had so-to-say dates every second three-thirty-threes in the morning, and they always exchanged so many snarky lines and had fun just cockblocking each other.

Now there was nothing. Just a lingering feeling in Kyungsoo's right hand that smelled of smoke.

Life as an ordinary human being was decidedly hard. He hadn't ever needed to deal with all these broken emotions and empty feelings – it had always been just banter, fanservice, exchanging fists and then sleep.

Nothing else. 

People would have perhaps thought that the mundane was dull. People might have always wanted to have a 'superpower' too, and live the sensational life of supernatural fights with all the good punch lines and jabs and gratuitous expletives and the enchanting adrenaline of being able to save the world, trying to carry everyone's problems onto their shoulders like Atlas did.

But to Kyungsoo – he had never truly felt all that. He was just a puppet under the council, enacting a persona he didn't even felt attached to. It was no wonder he loved to sleep – it made him forget about how empty and hollow he really was.

And now – now there was just him, some Japanese classes to distract him, some work at a gym that kept reminding him about how he didn't quite fit in – how he could easily pick up a truck and balance it on his finger when his customer couldn't do thirty kilos dumbbell curls. 

Not that he was mocking his client – no, it was mostly because the disparity was too great for him to not think about the old days. And his old days just consisted of fights with Smoker. Every other villain he'd fought with had slipped off his memory.

Kyungsoo got out of bed, and found himself hit with a smell of curry. He trotted to the kitchenette and noticed a covered bowl with a note attached. He didn't bother reading and just checked what his food plan was today.

Udon curry. There was dashi stock, some pork, fresh green onion slices and soy sauce over the top. He then glanced at the note, which said. 

"I'll be back later tonight. There's some chicken yakisoba I made in the fridge, for dinner. You liked it a lot, right? You completely finished the yakisoba last time."

Kyungsoo crumbled the note, and the paper was practically ground to sand before he realised that he was exerting too much force.

When he had finished breakfast – he had decided to make himself an omelette instead of indulging in his flatmate's cuisine. He then prepared his books, stepped out of his apartment only to be hit with a newspaper flying straight into his face.

"Ah! Sorry！" the delivery boy cried out. He looked like he was only a high school student, and Kyungsoo just gave him a cold glare. It seemed to have been enough to scare the boy away, which made Kyungsoo soften his features, wondering if he had really needed to frighten the lad.

"Ah…" he wanted to call out, but the boy had already biked out of sight. Kyungsoo frowned. Now he wasn't sure who to give the roll of newspaper to. He couldn't possibly read this. His and Chanyeol's Japanese combined together would probably not have been enough to decipher as much as a paragraph of an article.

In any case, he looked down, and it was an issue of the local Yokohama newspapers. He was about to throw it inside the flat when a single and simple kanji of 'fire' had caught his eye. He then read the full title of the article carefully.

"B.O.Y. ON FIRE: 横浜銀行の神秘黒火 " which roughly translated to "B.O.Y. on Fire: Mysterious Black Flames at the Bank of Yokohama" if Kyungsoo's phone application served him right.

 

 

When he heard the soft chink of keys turning in the lock, Kyungsoo sat up on his bed and waited for the click of the door before he slid into his slippers and stealthily walked to the door of his bedroom that was left slightly open.

"Where have you been?" He caught Chanyeol off-guard after his roommate had slipped out of his coat. The taller man just whirled around, eyes wide with mild surprise.

"Just work," he answered.

After a blur of movements, Kyungsoo was on top of Chanyeol who was pinned to the wooden floor. Kyungsoo stared the other into the eyes.

"Where were you yesterday?" he growled menacingly.

Chanyeol had a confused look on his face, and he was breathing a bit heavily, what with Kyungsoo's weight on him.

In the next moment, he turned to smoke and Kyungsoo was now the one being pinned the floor.

"What the fuck is going on?" Chanyeol then asked, as if their roles had official switched, now that he was on top.

"Stop pretending like you don't know what I'm talking about," Kyungsoo muttered harshly, as he grabbed for the other's collar and they tumbled over so that he was on top again.

"Okay, if it's about me getting back late then I can explain—" Chanyeol said.

"—Haven't you ever thought I might get tired of hearing the same explanations over and over again?"

"Can we talk with like, you on the bottom because you're really going to crush my bones," Chanyeol squirmed, and Kyungsoo did see the tears of pain in the other's eyes. He let go, and moved off of Chanyeol.

"I read the newspaper today," he clarified. Chanyeol stared at him in bewilderment, at first.

"You actually read the newspaper?" he asked to confirm as if it were harder to believe than hedgehogs flying.

"The delivery boy sent it right into my face this morning," Kyungsoo explained.

Chanyeol looked even more confused now.

"Alright, so you read the newspaper and how does this link back to why you're jumping me the second I come back home?"

"Why are you still pretending that you don't know what the fuck I'm talking about?"

"Because what the fuck, I don't know?" Chanyeol retorted, his hands up in the air for emphasis. "I know you're angry about me not being around but I can't help it?"

"Can't help it?" Kyungsoo repeated. "Please elaborate, Park Chanyeol. How in the fuck can an intern be so busy that his flatmate hasn't been able to see him in like more than a week?"

"Look," Chanyeol took him by the shoulders and Kyungsoo wanted to swat the other's hands away but they just turned to smoke and rematerialized onto him whenever he attempted to. "You've got to calm down—"

"— Is that seriously the best you can come up with? Calm down?"

Chanyeol whined exasperatedly. "Please just trust me—"

"That's what I've been trying to do ever since you invited me to move in with you! But you're making this extremely difficult, you know?" Kyungsoo exclaimed, louder than he intended.

Chanyeol took a step forward, closing some distance before leaning down and pressing his forehead against Kyungsoo's. The latter tried to shake him off, but it only made the taller press in harder, and stare into his eyes even more.

"Ssh," his flatmate said, and it only made Kyungsoo even angrier.

"Why won't you just tell me what you're doing?" Kyungsoo whispered, tears welling up against his will. Chanyeol saw them and kissed them away.

"It'll be over soon," was all he could offer.

"I don't care if you're doing something shady again," Kyungsoo murmured, his voice trembling. "I just care that you're not telling me about it," he admitted before a sob escaped him. "Like come on, it's not like I don't know what you used to do. You couldn't possibly do any worse."

Chanyeol just bumped his nose with Kyungsoo and didn't speak. There was another strangled sob before Chanyeol plunged down and crashed his lips against his flatmate's.

It was a bit more desperate than he intended. His large hands slowly slipped down to Kyungsoo's arms and then his hands, and held them in a familiar way that made Kyungsoo feel lax and at ease.

The angle was strange at first but they kissed and kissed and re-adjusted how they crashed into each other every time, with the force of misunderstood anger. Chanyeol then nipped at Kyungsoo's lower lip and the latter gasped, giving the other some access, letting him moan and whisper his name wordlessly into his mouth. Their hands then unclasped and roamed up to cheeks and necks, and then Kyungsoo pushed Chanyeol against a wall – the one with the clock hanging right above, and he was tiptoeing so he could reach up for another session of rough kisses, and Chanyeol's hands travelled down to grab at his waist, hip, thigh, ass.

Kyungsoo squirmed at the grope, but he started pushing back against the other's large hands before he knew what he was doing.

At one point though they had to break off. They gasped for air and their breaths were completely out of whack. Kyungsoo stepped away a bit, the back of a hand over his lips that were slightly swelled with titillation as his cheeks glowed red.

Chanyeol then slowly brought his own giant hands up to Kyungsoo's neck. "You okay?" He asked.

Kyungsoo wanted to laugh. His emotions had not been able to catch up quite yet, but he'd learned quite a few things about himself from this impromptu session. One of them being the fact that he really liked kissing Chanyeol. The other being the fact that he must have been just plain stupid to not have gone for it earlier – all those times where Chanyeol had been so close, so fucking close. 

Still, Kyungsoo was much less than 'okay'. His stormy anger still stood strong within him, and just because he got to kiss Chanyeol didn't mean he could turn a blind eye to everything else, though he really wanted to just forget about some bank being robbed and caught on fire.

"Just tell me," he murmured. "Tell me that you robbed the Bank of Yokohama, last night."

Chanyeol frowned, and for two whole seconds Kyungsoo wondered if he had mistaken the bank name, because Chanyeol looked so confused. 

"I didn't...?" he said, question marks all over his face.

Kyungsoo backed off and then marched to the dining table where the newspaper sat. He grabbed it and came back, shoving it into Chanyeol's chest.

The taller man's baffled look still didn't leave his face, so he took a while before he looked down at the article in question.

But once he did, Kyungsoo could visibly see his shoulders relaxing, which was a curious reaction given that it wasn't something that was supposed to make you feel more at ease.

"I didn't even know about this," Chanyeol said, blinking at the paper. "Must be some other villain. The article says something about some tall guy in a black suit but I swear to god that's not me."

Kyungsoo raised an eyebrow sceptically. 

"Besides, I don't even own a black suit – just a light grey one – and I would totally wear street fashion – not some suit – if I was going to rob a bank."

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. He had forgotten Chanyeol's previous attires, but it wasn't like he couldn't put it past the guy to wear a black suit. Besides which, it wasn't like Kyungsoo really understood the article completely – at one point the kanjis had become way too overwhelming.

"So I'm mistaken," he mumbled, a bit dejected. Chanyeol looked at him.

"Well, I don't blame you."

"I still think you're hiding something from me though."

Chanyeol looked away. "Well, I guess I am, but I'd rather you not know about it before the time's come."

Kyungsoo glared up at his flatmate. "So you are hiding something?"

Chanyeol walked to the counter and reached for the jug to pour some water. After a big gulp, he looked back at an expectant Kyungsoo.

"Uh, well, you'll know soon," he said, "really soon. I promise."

Kyungsoo couldn't quite just let it go at that. "Why are you suddenly so much more casual about this?"

"Hmm?" Chanyeol said as he took another glass of water.

"Why are you suddenly so lax about all this? Like, you're … chill about me knowing that you're hiding something," Kyungsoo tried clarifying.

"Hmm," Chanyeol said as he gurgled some water before swallowing. "Maybe it's because of the snogging?"

Kyungsoo sighed. "You're not making any sense."

"Perhaps," Chanyeol shrugged, but then his eyes lit up again. "Are we going to be kissing some more?" He started approaching Kyungsoo.

"No, I'm too tired," the shorter man said. "And you're a lousy kisser."

"You're such a bad liar."

"You're not one to say."

"It'll be over soon," Chanyeol said as he wrapped an arm around Kyungsoo's waist and leaned down to kiss the other's temple.

 

Three mornings later, Chanyeol left a note on the refrigerator that read, in big obnoxious words, "TODAY IS THE DAY. I'll be back early. Make sure you do too. Good luck with your kanji quiz. There's a bento of yakisoba for you on the counter for extra luck, don't forget to take it. Xoxo."

Kyungsoo sighed. Whatever today was didn't really matter to him to be honest. He had a good night's sleep and his anger had long been depleted at this point. He crumbled the paper and sent it directly to the recycling bin, trying to shake off the disgusting frissons he was getting from the 'xoxo'. 

On the other hand, he had completely forgotten about his huge kanji quiz.

Kyungsoo walked to the calendar that hung in the hallway. It was something rather cheap-looking that Chanyeol had gotten from work. There were some notes for the first two months they were there, but afterwards there was nothing else because at one point they didn't really bother anymore. Kyungsoo idly flipped through the pages, and wondered if he should get another calendar since it was the end of the year. He could really use something to note down his tests, at least, and since he hated his phone - why couldn't mundane technology catch up already so that he could use his choker without anyone asking about it? – this was the only way left. 

That or he could use Chanyeol as his very interactive human calendar since the guy seemed to know everything about his schedules.

It reminded Kyungsoo of his agent, Baekhyun. 

Kyungsoo was never so great with dates and appointments after all.

He was about to move away to collect his things so he could head out, but it was when he let go of the calendar that he spied a very tiny pencil'd circle over a date in January on the monthly summary of the next year.

 

When Kyungsoo came back home from a very long day, he had dropped his bag to the floor in the hallway just as he was coming up the stairs to head to his apartment door. 

Not that he was surprised per se. He was mostly irritated. It seemed that people really kept sending things to the wrong door, what with the newspaper incident.

There, blocking the entrance to his flat, was a black acoustic upright piano, and two delivery men who were ringing the doorbell with evident impatience.

"Excuse me," Kyungsoo voiced, and the two men turned to him. "I think you must have made a mistake. There's no way I ordered a piano. Or that my flatmate ordered a piano, for that matter. We're broke. Very broke."

The guy looked at him up and down. "Our job is just to deliver the product. You'll have to contact the buyer for any other inquiry. Could you possibly sign here? Also, we can help you move it in."

Kyungsoo sighed. He took the proffered pen and quickly signed the paper. "I can take it in. Just leave it."

"Oh but we insist," one of the man said. "It is very heavy. Heavier than it looks."

"I'll be fine. My flatmate will be back soon and he's big and tough," Kyungsoo lied smoothly.

The men looked at each other for a while before conceding.

 

 

The move had been a breeze. Kyungsoo didn't even break a sweat. 

But when he looked at the papers that came with it – receipt of the transaction – he couldn't help but frown at the price that was written on it. Apparently the piano was a vintage Yamaha, and though it was secondhand, it was so well-kept that it was as expensive as a new grand piano – only because it was limited edition. 2571936.32 yen, he read. He tried counting the spaces from the decimal to the left extremity but gave up because the print was proving to be tiny.

It was an absurd price, in any case.

Kyungsoo was about to get himself a snack when Chanyeol barged into the apartment.

"Holy shit, is it here already?" he screamed, and Kyungsoo flinched slightly, almost dropping his bag of mochi.

Chanyeol's coat was completely unbuttoned, as if he hadn't had the time to button up when he'd left work. His cheeks were red, and his lips looked a bit chapped – surely from the cold wind outside.

Kyungsoo eyed him. "You don't mean to say you actually bought something?"

Chanyeol bit his lip and then his eyes snapped to the piano that sat in the living room. "Well, it was supposed to arrive later. Like, much later, when I would be here?"

"That doesn't answer my question."

The taller man then disappeared and reappeared in front of the black marvel, and Kyungsoo had to walk over to the hallway to see what was happening.

Chanyeol then looked at Kyungsoo. 

"Isn't she a beauty," he exclaimed, his eyes sparkling with something that Kyungsoo couldn't quite understand.

Kyungsoo flared his nostrils. "Yes, and you have some explaining to do right now or else I'll make sure she's not going to stay pretty."

"Jealous much?" Chanyeol said.

"In your dreams."

Chanyeol disintegrated and the smoke smoothly moved to Kyungsoo's side.

"Can we just … try something before we get to the talk?" he whispered into Kyungsoo's ear, and the shorter man recoiled while rubbing at it. 

"What?" he asked, not very amused.

Chanyeol then smiled. A smile that Kyungsoo hadn't seen in a very, very long time. It made the world stop. It made Kyungsoo's mouth go dry. It made him relax.

"You sing, and I play?" Chanyeol proposed.

 

Kyungsoo felt more nervous than the first time he had sung to Chanyeol, now about two to three weeks ago.

He waited as Chanyeol tried to get used to the piano, and wondered if he might not have a memory blank during the song. His fists clenched and he had an extreme urge to just punch the guts out of Chanyeol just from sheer anxiety.

He always made Kyungsoo feel this way. Always made him feel like he was pushed to the edge with overflowing feelings that he couldn't keep in his hands. Kyungsoo looked down at the floor. The day was already getting dark – and the only source of light came from the kitchenette, and it barely reached out to the living room. 

Chanyeol then started, and then stopped even though it seemed to be right. 

"I've been practicing this on the digital keyboard at the radio station some nights," Chanyeol explained. "This is a different feel after all – the keys are a bit more slippery, but I should be able to get a hang of it soon."

Kyungsoo nodded.

Chanyeol then started again, and this time it continued, and Kyungsoo didn't know if he was supposed to sing or not. The cue was coming soon.

To his surprise, Chanyeol started the first line.

"見てよ空を　今日は　こんなにも晴れているよ　だから (Look at the sky. It's so clear out today, so.)" he sang, and his voice rang across the apartment, low and husky and it got to Kyungsoo so much that he hadn't seen his flatmate wink at him to signal that it was his turn so he missed the next line.

"君にそう言ったんだよ　なのに (That's what I told you, but…)" Kyungsoo tried, but he seemed to have messed up a note. Chanyeol didn't seem to mind.

"I didn't know you played the piano," Kyungsoo said instead because his curiosity was getting the better of him, and besides, he'd already made a mistake.

Chanyeol stopped. "I mostly played the guitar. I didn't actually have a piano before, so."

Kyungsoo smiled briefly. "Baekhyun had guessed you played the piano too."

"He's pretty good at guessing, to be real honest with you."

"Yeah."

"So," Chanyeol said as he cracked his knuckles. "From the top?"

Kyungsoo nodded.

So Chanyeol re-started again, and ten seconds in, Kyungsoo joined in.

"見てよ空を　今日は　こんなにも晴れているよ　だから (Look at the sky. It's so clear out today, so.)" they both breathed low, their voices harmonised in such a good way that Kyungsoo felt goosebumps on the back of his arms and shivers down his spine.

"散歩でもしにいかない？ (Would you like to go out on a walk?)" Here Chanyeol didn't sing, and maybe it was better that way because Kyungsoo wouldn't have been able to continue without some sort of seizure.

 

仲直りがしたいんだ　僕は 

(I want to make things right between us)

君にそう言ったんだよ　なのに

(That's what I told you, but…)

君は知らんぷりをしてる

(You're pretending that you don't know)

見たことないような顔で

(Making a face I've never seen before)

そんなに怒らせたなら謝るよ

(If I made you this angry, I apologize)

ところでさっきからどうして

(But, since a while ago, why…)

君はずっと泣いてるの？

(Why have you been crying?)

 

Kyungsoo closed his eyes.

 

まるで僕がいないみたいにさ

(Pretending as if I'm not even here)

君はまたそうやって意地悪するよ

(That's how you tease me again and again)

重ねた手を握りしめて

(You'd grasp my hand when they're close)

君は　けど僕には気づかないよ

(But you never really notice that I'm there)

 

He inhaled and exhaled deeply, before opening his eyes, though before he could catch his breath properly again, Chanyeol took over the lyrics.

 

あのさ　僕は 君に伝えなくちゃ 

(You know, I have something I need to tell you.)

少しくらいの間違いは 生きてればそりゃあるだろう

(A few mistakes here and there is a normal thing, right? Since we're alive…)

そんなに気にしなくていい

(You don't need to be too worried.)

僕が側にずっといてあげる

(I'll stay by your side through it all.)

 

だけど君の気が済まないなら 

(But, if that's not enough for you)

ほっぺをつねってやるよ

(I'll give your cheeks a pinch)

それでおあいこにしたら

(And if you can call us even after that)

もう行くよ

(I'll take my leave)

君に言わなくちゃ　少し照れるけど

(I've got to tell you, though I'm a bit embarrassed) 

 

"君を愛してるよ　(That I'm in love with you)" Chanyeol then whispered. And here he broke off into the piano bridge.

But those last words that he sang wouldn't leave Kyungsoo's mind, and they just stayed and echoed in his mind, louder than his iPod ever could at max volume, and more erratic than the first time he had ever sung it while thinking of Chanyeol.

When Kyungsoo missed the start of the last stanzas, Chanyeol just looked up at him, a genuine look of concern written across his face. He then stopped playing.

"Are you … okay?" Chanyeol asked.

Of course Kyungsoo wasn't, but instead of saying that, he just dived down and pressed his lips against Chanyeol's.

 

Chanyeol pushed Kyungsoo into the cushion of the couch. He was nipping at his neck. Left a trail of butterfly kisses while the shorter man just sunk his head into the sofa, closing his eyes and moaning. Chanyeol's hands were running down Kyungsoo's clothed chest, stomach, and waist. 

He then dug his fingers into his flatmate's thighs, earning himself a few gasps. Chanyeol massaged them roughly through the denim as he smelled in Kyungsoo's essence from his collarbone, where his shirt parted. 

He then stopped and came back up to press his forehead against Kyungsoo's. Their noses touch again, and then it was the same thing over again. Forehead, nose, kiss. And then a long series of uninterrupted kisses. 

Kyungsoo's arms were loosely around Chanyeol's neck and he brought him closer down in order to deepen their connection. 

"I want you so much," Chanyeol then muttered against his cheek.

Kyungsoo didn't respond, so the other prompted. "Can I have you?"

The shorter man laughed and then buried his laughter against the other's lips.

They broke off to catch their breaths.

There was a pause.

"No need to ask, but yes," Kyungsoo then whispered. 

And Chanyeol smiled.

 

Kyungsoo probably wasn't Baekhyun enough to connect the dots, or to figure out what Chanyeol was hiding, but at that point he didn't care. At that point he just wanted to trust the man. 

Kyungsoo needed this with a passion he was starting to lose control of.

No, he thought as Chanyeol moved south: he knew he had long lost it. His fingers gripped into the silvery hair, and he wondered if he might not just spill too soon – it had been a while after all, and his body was already prickly with oversensitivity because of the song that wouldn't stop repeating in his head.

The taller man unzipped the front of his jeans, and feeling the zip cross his bulge made Kyungsoo jerk up. Chanyeol pushed him back down, and his fingers on Kyungsoo's inner thighs drove him mad.

"Are you sure?" Chanyeol murmured, and Kyungsoo would have punched him in the face because seriously?

"Yes," he hissed.

Chanyeol hesitated, trying to gauge something Kyungsoo couldn't be bothered to figure out. He arched his back towards Chanyeol just so the tall guy could get the hint and move on.

"When I asked if I could have you…"

"I don't really want a chitchat right now," Kyungsoo said.

Chanyeol frowned. "But I want to make sure of some stuff."

Kyungsoo frowned back. "Make the chitchat quick."

"Okay, so when I asked if I could have you…"

"And I said yes."

"… And you said yes…"

"Did you mean –"

"I meant yes to everything. Yes to your proposal for a date. Yes to your undying love. Yes to being with you forever and ever. Yes to have mind-blowing sex, right now and every other subsequent times, yes to trusting you, a-and…" Kyungsoo blurted. "And yes I mean that I love you too. Yes. Got it?"

Chanyeol opened his mouth but closed it again. 

"Any more questions?" Kyungsoo closed his eyes, his cheeks flaring up from the sheer adrenaline of having finally confessed.

All this time and he kept that in and it was left to come out as a mess that probably didn't even answer Chanyeol's question.

"No, but can I just respond to that?"

"Would you spare me if I said no?"

"Well, … no, I. I suppose not."

"So get to it."

"Okay, er. I—" Chanyeol paused. "I-I love you too. Like a lot. And not like the way I used to love you – when we were Smoker and D.O. Flamingo."

"D.O," Kyungsoo corrected.

"Same difference," Chanyeol smiled sheepishly. "I love you as Park Chanyeol, a silly intern who works hard at a radio station."

"And I'm just a personal trainer at a nearby gym."

"You're more than that."

"If you're just an intern, then I'm just a personal trainer."

"You're so much more than just that," Chanyeol reasserted.

"Prove it," Kyungsoo enticed.

 

 

Chanyeol kissed Kyungsoo again. It was the thirty-ninth time. Kyungsoo knew because he was counting them, because he wanted to keep a record of every single one.

This one was well executed. Good timing. Good way to continue from where they'd left off.

Then Chanyeol had taken off Kyungsoo's jeans and gotten to his boxers. He nipped and licked the mound through the fabric once or twice before he took it off too. Kyungsoo hissed at the cold air as his member was finally released, but he had to choke down what would have been a very embarrassing moan when Chanyeol kissed the tip of his cock.

"Nnnghh," he let out nonetheless when Chanyeol wrapped his fingers around the shaft and started pumping lightly, slowly. He licked the underside, following the vein from down to up, letting it glisten with his saliva. He then paused when he reached the top. In the next heartbeat, Kyungsoo had his legs wrapped behind Chanyeol's back, his fingers completely lost in the other's hair.

Chanyeol took in the head, humming and letting go before doing the same again. And after twice of that, he took more in, down to where he could before his gag reflex would have kicked in. He then came back up and let go of Kyungsoo's dick with a quiet pop.

Kyungsoo was panting, and Chanyeol kissed the inside of his thigh lovingly and it made Kyungsoo's insides melt. Chanyeol then passed a tongue through the slit of the head, and Kyungsoo trembled, and pumped the rest of the cock with his hand as he took the tip again and sucked.

But Kyungsoo stopped him after a few moments of that, a foot pushing against Chanyeol's shoulder. 

"I'll come too fast."

Chanyeol looked up. "That's fine."

"I don't want it to end with just a blowjob."

"We can… exchange blows then?" Chanyeol winked shamelessly. "Pun intended."

He pushed him off with a playful grin. They switched places. Pants and boxers were taken off in a hurry. 

Kyungsoo tried returning the favour as much as he could. He licked and sucked at Chanyeol's cock. It was really difficut, and a bit bigger than Kyungsoo had imagined. He could only take in a little at a time, but he did his best in covering as much as he could, slurping loudly, tasting Chanyeol fully, opening his mouth as wide as possible.

But before he could do anything else, his flatmate brought him back up for a kiss.

Forty-first, Kyungsoo thought. 

This time it was salty.

 

 

ところでさっきからどうして 

(But, since a while ago, why…)

君はずっと泣いてるの？

(Why have you been crying?)

"Wait, I need to get the lube," Chanyeol said.

Kyungsoo knelt back on the floor. "Where is it?"

Chanyeol flushed up. "It's in o-our room."

Kyungsoo mirrored the blush.

Chanyeol almost tripped over the small carpet in the hallway, but then he disappeared into the shadows and suddenly came back next to Kyungsoo, smoke still changing into skin on his face.

"I got it."

Kyungsoo nodded, then he looked at the couch. "How do I set myself up?"

Chanyeol hesitated. "You don't need to be the one to bottom."

Kyungsoo couldn't glow any redder. "It's fine. I want to bottom."

"But…" Chanyeol averted his gaze.

"I don't really know how to do it anyways," Kyungsoo admitted. "You could show me and then maybe … maybe next time."

Chanyeol nodded with a gulp.

 

君に言わなくちゃ　少し照れるけど

(I've got to tell you, though I'm a bit embarrassed)  
The burn was slow, dull.

Kyungsoo was on the sofa while Chanyeol was back at his initial position in between his legs.

He had two fingers in now, and they were curling up experimentally and scissoring inside when it wasn't looking for the spot Chanyeol had briefly explained to Kyungsoo about. Some place that was supposed to make him see stars, fly to mars, and all the cheesy metaphors Chanyeol could think of.

"Just put another finger in already," Kyungsoo groaned impatiently, and Chanyeol glanced up at him.

"I only just got the second finger in."

"I don't care." Kyungsoo sounded more belligerent than he intended, but he couldn't care less. Chanyeol had to hurry up. He was bursting at the seams. "It's fine."

Chanyeol poured some more lube over his buried fingers with his left hand and it got a tad messy, but the slide was much smoother now, and the third digit was inserted with more ease than the first two had been. Kyungsoo bit down on his lower lip and tightened around the fingers impulsively. And that was when Chanyeol finally found his prostate.

Kyungsoo squirmed and let out a moan of pleasure, which only got Chanyeol rubbing at the same place even more. It took all his willpower not to let go of the reins. His body arched upwards, his lips quivered as he begged noiselessly, a rush of emotions stuck at his throat. He reached out towards his flatmate with a trembling hand.

"S-stop, Y-yeol..." Kyungsoo breathed heavily.

Chanyeol looked up, and the rest was communicated wordlessly.

He retracted his fingers, quickly got to his knees. He rubbed Kyungsoo's inner thigh for some form of reassurance as he lubed his dick up with what he had remaining on his fingers.

 

 

Kyungsoo held his breath when he felt himself stretched with something far thicker than fingers. To his mild surprise, it didn't hurt or burn as much – he was probably used to it by now, though he could admit maybe Chanyeol kissing him helped a lot.

Forty-five. This time it was bittersweet.

Bittersweet enough to make him think of everything they'd gone through. Sweet like the food that Chanyeol left behind with silly notes. Bitter like when he had received a blow to his ribs on the train. And those triggered many other memories. The first time they had passed each other and turned back to look at each other – at the airport. The first time they had introduced themselves as just Chanyeol and Kyungsoo. Just a radio station intern and a part-time personal trainer.

It also made Kyungsoo think about how they had met the first time as enemies by profession in a Korean city, trying to play under big words like justice and righteousness, trying to outdo each other over mere fists and meaningless lines, as if that was all there was to a human's life.

But here he was, just counting kisses, as if saving them in his pocket for a rainy day, protecting them as if they were his only raisons d'être. 

Chanyeol's movements were already erratic. Kyungsoo could tell he was losing it too. Chanyeol thrust hard and fast into him, and Kyungsoo would clench, squirm, moan, his insides melting into magma that burned everlastingly.

Chanyeol leaned in and Kyungsoo could smell the smoke and it clouded his mind again – and at first he thought, god this was unhealthy as fuck, but he couldn't help breathing in some more, burying his nose into the other's skin, purloining as much as he could.

The slide of the cock made incredible friction against his walls, and the lube was starting to run out, leaving just a burn that felt like a trailblazer within Kyungsoo, but he didn't mind. It made him feel real. And he knew from the ragged breaths and groans from his flatmate that it felt real to Chanyeol too.

He kissed the other's nose. It was just his very gentle and soft way of saying harder, deeper, faster.

Chanyeol kissed him back fervently. 

Forty-six. This one tasted like happiness.

Kyungsoo chuckled against the other's lips. Chanyeol was more endearing than he could have ever imagined. He pulled the other closer, and the sound of skin slapping into skin became louder and louder.

It felt so good when Chanyeol twitched inside of him whenever he took a break for air, oxygen, and reality. It made Kyungsoo clench, made him have to hold his own erection, trying not to come too fast.

Chanyeol pulled out, grabbed Kyungsoo by his hips, turned him to his side, and lifted one of his legs over his shoulder before re-entering. Kyungsoo's left cheek was mushed into the seat of the sofa. He had to squeeze his eyes shut as he was spread wider and wider with Chanyeol's every thrust.

He was so close. There was a rush of white in his vision whenever Chanyeol hit the spot, which was every second shove or so; the new position had made it easier to reach.

 

君を愛してるよ　(That I'm in love with you)  
Kyungsoo came with the climax of the lyrics resounding in his mind, amplified with a strong remix beat. He spilled over the cushion and his stomach in light shudders, and he let out moans that were shameless and unabashed.

Chanyeol stopped his own movements and grabbed for Kyungsoo's hand, laced their fingers and held him tight, and Kyungsoo had a flash of the night Chanyeol had asked to hold hands.

Something calm rushed through him, like that of watching a quiet night sky filled with rare stars from the the roof of a tall building. He slowly started breathing again, the sound of it hoarse at first though it gradually turned faint after a few seconds.

Kyungsoo was suddenly very aware of the cock that sat heavy but still, inside of him. He pushed back tentatively, and Chanyeol let out a desperate sound, but still he didn't move, as if he was scared to overstimulate the smaller man. Kyungsoo reassured the other by clenching his insides, and tightly holding Chanyeol's hand. It seemed to have emotionally charged the taller.

Chanyeol's lips were parted, his eyes dark with fire rather than smoke, and if Kyungsoo wasn't so tired he'd probably be aroused just from that alone, all over again.

Kyungsoo propped himself slightly by his elbows, and then rolled his hips to start the motion again, and Chanyeol gently kissed the inside of his leg, close to the kneecap.

And then it started again. 

Passionately, ardently, diligently, Kyungsoo thought. 

Nothing like the rush of victory when he had been a superhero, saving the day from some unlucky antihero who was broken and writhing at his feet – the feeling used to be the best in the world, but that was because Kyungsoo had known nothing about life, nothing about the world, nothing about Smoker as a human, nothing about Smoker's love for him.

He pushed Chanyeol off. 

Kyungsoo had his own take on passion, ardour and diligence, and it was high time he showed some of it.

He pushed down Chanyeol onto the sofa and sat directly onto the other's abdomen, his shirt falling on their sides, and he took Chanyeol's cheeks and leaned down to crash their lips.

He then lifted his waist and slowly sank down Chanyeol's length. Taking it all. Feeling it burn, reflecting the fire in Chanyeol's eyes in his own.

And then Chanyeol came just when Kyungsoo had sat down completely.

The come filled Kyungsoo, and he winced before he fell onto Chanyeol.

 

Silence seemed to like them a lot. They hadn't said a thing after that, and Chanyeol was just spent, draped over the side of the sofa. Kyungsoo on the other hand, had gone to get a towel and a rag. The first he flung to his flatmate, and the other he used to wipe the stains on the couch. 

"I need to take a smoke," the taller man finally said with a deep sigh when Kyungsoo finished up cleaning. "Do you mind?"

"Weren't you supposed to have quit?" Kyungsoo replied.

"I reckon it's moot point to quit entirely. I'm made of smoke and I need some replenishing right now," Chanyeol waivered, as if not smoking had been a privilege he could decide he didn't want. 

 

Kyungsoo sat next to Chanyeol and leaned against the other's chest. "So how did you gather enough money to buy this instrument? Rob a bank?"

"I didn't rob that bank, I swear to god, Soo."

"You're paid minimum wage as an intern, and even if you've gotten a raise in the form of food and recipes from your co-workers, it wouldn't be enough. Also what's with the price?"

Chanyeol frowned. "What about the price?"

"It's, like, not even rounded."

"I haggled a lot," Chanyeol laughed. 

Kyungsoo rolled his eyes. "Okay, er, back to the point. How did you afford the piano if not by robbing a bank?"

Chanyeol looked away, out the window.

The night-lights outside looked dimmed, and the sky was slightly grey with clouds. If they looked carefully though – there were small petals of snow falling.

"I took on several night-shift jobs and freelance jobs. The pay is higher, especially when I worked alone," Chanyeol then explained. "Those were really lonely nights," he added.

"What kind of jobs?" Kyungsoo asked. He was sure they weren't just anything. Not just the night shifts of a supermarket cashier. Not just the night shifts at a twenty-four-seven restaurant or izakaya. The price was too high, the number of days too low for Chanyeol to have managed.

"Night-shifts in almost four izakayas, body-guarding some museums, security at public places. And this one freelance job," Chanyeol gulped. "Got me a lot. A good chunk of it."

"Elaborate."

Chanyeol bit his lip, growing nervous under Kyungsoo's gaze. "Do I really have to?"

"Did you sell a kidney?"

"Oh my god, no, of course not."

"Then spill it cause I'm going to go nuts with all these hypotheses swimming in my head. Did you sell your body to the yakuza?"

"NO, I didn't sell my body to the yakuza. My god, the ideas you've got! I just. Hacked for someone."

Kyungsoo sat still. It was funny how he didn't like it despite the fact that two people he deeply cared for were hackers. "Define 'just'."

"I mean, alright, it's still a pretty big deal, especially when everyone's got a virtual imprint, but I mean I made sure that I was anonymous. The guy just wanted me to – hack into some system, get some information for him. Monitor some stuff. It's just that. Nothing else."

"Was it for some shady supervillain?"

"A contemporary supervillain wouldn't be able to afford me, mind you."

"But you hacked into something and gave them access to information that they should not have access to. Could be top secret information that makes them get their hands on dirty money."

"Are you actually preaching justice and moral etiquette to me?"

Kyungsoo tensed up his shoulders but massaged a temple. "Old habits die hard, but you can't just think I'd dismiss this, right?"

Chanyeol finally took a cigarette out. "I wanted to get the money in time."

"In time for what? You could have just told me and then we could have worked on it together the legal way. I know that lawfulness is underrated, but we've spent the last few months trying to be under the radar for a reason—"

"I wanted this to be a surprise for your birthday," Chanyeol murmured.

Kyungsoo sighed. 

"And I wanted something big," Chanyeol added, with hand gestures to emphasize his point. "You know, it wasn't only just for you, I mean, I just wanted to play the piano along with you ever since I heard your voice, and I know the digital piano at the radio station wouldn't do your vocals justice. I really wanted to do something special for your birthday. Something grand and romantic."

Kyungsoo scoffed. "It's not my birthday today."

"Kyungsoo, your credentials are practically carved into my heart ever since the dawn of time. Don't even try. I'm not even sure why you denied your own birthday."

"You're a sap."

"And you’re my tree of life."

"That was hardly poetic."

Chanyeol took a drag, exhaled some smoke that swivelled lightly around the room before leaving out the window. 

"That'll be your last time," Kyungsoo insisted, his gaze down at the floor in front of them.

"Yeah," Chanyeol said, tapping the ash off the cig. "Last one."

"I meant this'll be the last time you hack."

Chanyeol crushed the stub of the cigarette into his palm, covering it up with the other, and in the next moment, the cig was gone in smoke.

"And last time you go on ballsy secret missions behind my back," Kyungsoo finished.

"Not ballsy, fluffy," Chanyeol cooed before he reappeared on top of Kyungsoo, looking down at him both dangerously and endearingly at the same time. "Romantic."

Kyungsoo glanced up. He then reached out and pulled Chanyeol down for a kiss before muttering against his lips, in the most serious tone he'd ever used in his life. "I know you were there, Yeol."

Chanyeol fell silent. 

 

"You hacked for that guy who robbed the bank, didn't you?" Kyungsoo closed his eyes. "He paid you to hack the security system and the blueprints. You didn't need to show up at the scene but you had to stay some place close, monitor the guy. The loot was more than enough for the supervillain to pay you." 

Chanyeol buried his face into the nook of Kyungsoo's neck.

"I know you've got the potential to do a lot better, and I don't blame you for resorting to old ways," Kyungsoo murmured softly. "But the thing is, you don't need to anymore."

Chanyeol trembled slightly.

"It'll take time but you'll make it out as a good DJ, and you'll produce music and you'll live off of that," Kyungsoo paused. "I know it's hard to find our place and find out what we're supposed to do, but you're the one who wanted to try for a normal life. And I guess I'm here to remind you of that. And I'll always be here to remind you of that."

Kyungsoo felt a tear that wasn't his flow down his collarbone and bit his lip as his insides twisted and knotted. He pressed a kiss into the other's hair, and Chanyeol took a while to recover from a few more tears.

"Yeah," he replied with a slight tremble to his voice. "It's funny how I keep wanting to live the normal life and then find myself doing anything but that. I guess maybe it's just that I want to – I don't know. Step the game up. Life as is – I'm still just an intern, and I can't even accompany your vocals and it frustrates me..." he bit his lip, "But what gave me away? I was sure you bought my lies."

Kyungsoo heaved a sigh.

"You held my hand that night, remember? Something communicated," Kyungsoo answered. "Something like insecurity. And then I felt it again when you came just now, when you held my hand tight."

Chanyeol wiped a tear off before nuzzling into Kyungsoo's embrace. "You're really good at reading emotions."

Kyungsoo shrugged, shaking his head. "Baek's the actual veteran at this. But I guess it takes one to know one. "

Chanyeol paused. "What do you mean?"

"I feel insecure too," Kyungsoo admitted dryly. "About this ordinary human life business. That's why I know."

 

 

Chanyeol wrapped his arms around the shorter boy's waist and hugged tight. "Sorry I got you into this—"

"Don't be sorry, Yeol. I don't hate it. Maybe the kanjis and the weightlifters are pretty boring compared to innovative technology, fistfights, explosions, bullets, expletive vomits, epic battles on top of burning buildings, and putting my life on the line every single time," Kyungsoo said. "But those never made me … feel real. On the other hand, all this makes me feel real." He pressed his hand against Chanyeol's heart.

Chanyeol chuckled and then moved up to capture Kyungsoo's lips with his own again.

Forty-nine, Kyungsoo counted.

"You're talking a lot tonight," Chanyeol whispered.

Kyungsoo shrugged. "It's the adrenaline."

"Yeah," Chanyeol agreed. 

 

 

"君を愛してるよ　(I'm in love with you)" Kyungsoo sang gently into the smoky air. 

"We should finish the song. We've still go another two stanzas," Chanyeol suggested. But before that, he dived in for another kiss.

 

 

Fifty, Kyungsoo counted.

And this one was enough to reverse gravity, he thought, light-heartedly.

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is also a homage to EGOIST's songs on top of everything else. The mood for this fic was mostly built up with her Reloaded album that includes [_Ghost of a Smile_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmaUWwoqEVg), [_Door_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgJty5XjciA) and [_Reloaded_](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8lIiuU10OQc). 
> 
> Also, a big thank you to YOU readers who have made it this far.


End file.
